The Painter
by hismysticmuse
Summary: Her paintings were all that mattered to her. Until she met him. A little love story about a girl being awakened to the world around her and dragging the boy along for the ride. A/U, Non cannon, M BxE, Lemons
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Here's a little story that's been begging to be written, so that's what I did. With that said, it's loosely based on bits of me, my mother, and my daughter but also with my normal twists and turns you've come to love or hate... This story is also not going to be Beta'd. If there is something horrible grammar wise that needs fixing, let me know (nicely). As ever, thank you in advance for your thoughts and reviews.

THE PAINTER

"_I do believe in an everyday sort of magic - the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we're alone..." ~ Charles de Lint_

~O~

Little dragon fly pins held back the long coffee colored hair draped over her bare shoulder as her arm lifted to touch a bit of paint onto her canvas.

The room was painfully still and silent, just like she liked it.

Some days, Bella would open a window or set the music on low but usually she preferred the silence.

Renee stood at the door with a frown, looking at her daughter.

She had another date tonight with one of the Arizona Diamondback baseball players, but she didn't really want to leave her daughter alone or in this current state.

But she didn't want to break the date even more.

He could be "the one."

The one who set her heart on fire.

The one who would take her from the dregs of Phoenix, but oh, so much more than that- a second chance for love.

But there was only one issue at hand.

Bella.

With a silent sigh, Renee shut the door and set her phone to dial Phillip Dwyer's number.

Three rings and with a winded chuckle, Phil's disembodied voice filtered through the room.

"Hey," he groaned with his sexy, raspy voice.

She could tell he was smiling and it caused her to mirror a smile but it didn't portray in her voice.

"Hey."

"Uh, oh," he chuckled dubiously.

"What?" Renee sighed, knowing.

"I can tell when something's up with you," His voice growing worried.

"Bella's painting," Renee said as if that explained everything.

Maybe it did.

"Ah, and you don't want to leave her." He deduced. There was a sudden clicking in the background as if he was messing with a ball point pen.

Phil was a pen clicker.

"I shouldn't leave her. I'm her mother. I feel like I am always gone with work as it is."

"Stop. You're a wonderful, doting mother." It was Phil's turn to sigh, knowing Renee was stuck between guilt and apprehension. "I can come over there."

"No… Ugh. Just… let me talk to her, I guess." Renee was pacing. Always talking and pacing.

"Will she be okay alone? I mean…" _She's eighteen._ He doesn't say the rest, but Renee knows what he's thinking because she's thinking the same thing.

"I think she should be," Renee hedges, biting her lip, but she knows her daughter and she knows the answer.

No. She won't.

Bella will most likely spend the entire night in her room and painting the same thing, always the same thing, only with slight deviations. But if she were to leave her room, the quiet solitude, she may become anxious if she found that Renee was not there.

Bella's anxiety controlled all actions within the home.

"You say that, but don't think she'll be okay," Phil whispered and paused for several moments. "I'll come over, problem solved." The clicking stopped… waiting.

"Phil-"

"Don't-" He interrupted. "Don't make excuses. I want to see you. I'll bring dinner, but you do need to call her father. You need to tell him."

Renee gasped and then took in a long wisp of air. "Oh, no Phil-"

"I know you don't want to, but she's not getting any better here and you know it."

"I don't think Charlie won't be any better for her." Renee whispered.

"He's got to be better than the situation now. You said he's barely home, so she'll have her quiet and no one will mess with the Police Chief's daughter… he's single, where you aren't, really."

That made Renee smile, knowing this man wanted her enough to appease her. But she also knew Phil was right, but she couldn't help but think his words were laced with the selfishness of someone who wasn't a parent for the past 18 years.

But she also couldn't disagree and Forks was far safer than Phoenix.

If Bella were to agree with moving with her father it would also give Renee and Phil the time they needed to build this relationship without the constant worry about Bella.

"Call him, now." Phil reiterated and then said a kind goodbye.

Renee hung up and stared at the phone.

Just staring and wondering where everything went wrong.

But maybe it was always wrong?

Night terrors.

Irrational fears.

Countless conferences with school psychologists, family therapists- who thought they knew her daughter.

But they didn't.

Not like she did.

Renee got Bella.

Renee was once Bella.

And there was that one boy who changed everything and nothing and left her in ruins.

But then there was Charlie.

To Renee, Charlie was a rock where James was the wind.

Renee was water.

And she used to paint them, just as Bella paints.

But also different.

More.

Renee was still water.

Charlie was still the rock.

But she didn't know the rest.

She didn't know who it was that Bella painted.

Who was the earth?

Who the Sun?

Who were the trees… the life given to each picture?

Who was the darkness?


	2. Chapter 2

The Painter

Chapter 2

"_Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution." ~ Kahlil Gibran_

~O~

Kindergarten

"I just don't know what to do," Renee cried into the phone, body buckling in silent sobs as she listened to her mother breathing steadily in the background.

Finally, she spoke quietly, "She's always been this way, Renee; I don't know what you're getting yourself so worked up about."

"I just feel for her, you know. She's so sweet and delicate and those other kids are so mean."

"Those kids are just being kids." Helena sighed. She could understand her daughters worry. She spent countless days worrying about her own child all through school. The fact she didn't form friendships easily and how immature she was compared to the others. But now it was different and there were names and disorders given, where parents were less inclined to have their children labeled and medicated.

"I have a meeting on Friday with the Kindergarten teacher. She said that Bella screams during music class, among other things. She covers her ears with her hands and rocks back and forth and cries."

"That's probably a bit of self-soothing," Her mother sighed. "She's never liked loud noises, Renee."

"I know," Renee huffed, remembering when Bella was a newborn and how they took her to a soccer game. She slept right through the crowd cheering, but the two girls screeching over her trying to wake her up- upset her.

"Just remember, Bella's special. There's just something about her," Helena added softy. "She's going to be okay. Just go in and tell them about her issues and see what they say. We can go from there."

"I will."

ooOOOoo

"Ms. Swan," the kindly teacher greeted as Renee entered the classroom. She reached for her hand to shake and then led them to a small table. The students were all outside for lunch recess but Bella had opted to sit inside in the cool, quiet classroom.

The teacher, Mrs. Perez looked where Renee was looking and said, "She usually sits in the classroom at recess. It makes her happy, but on days I have a substitute it's very difficult for her.

Renee frowned as she caught her daughter's eye. She instantly smiled at her, brightly and waved. Her Bella smiled back and then went back to eating and drawing.

"Can I speak freely?" Mrs. Perez asked, redirecting Renee's attention to her. She sat down and gestured Renee to follow. Once Renee nodded and sat, Mrs. Perez continued.

"Bella's the sweetest child," she smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. "She just seems to be having some trouble with the other students and the whole dynamic of a classroom."

"Oh?"

"Mm, hmm. She actually got her blouse cut by another student and that sent her into a tailspin."

"Oh, I bet."

"Yes. She didn't react well. She cried. She said she was going to get in so much trouble and was carrying on about how you would be so upset with her. I explained that it wasn't her fault and that you would understand; that I would talk to you about it, so here we are."

Renee smiled as her eyes once again landed on her child.

"Ms. Swan," Renee turned back to the teacher and saw the steady look Mrs. Perez was giving her. "I don't know quite how to say this but, Bella talks about your boyfriend."

Renee gasped and her eyes widened. "I've had a couple of boyfriends since her father and I broke up." Mrs. Perez nodded sympathetically so Renee continued. "Bella doesn't seem to like this one."

"Well, as I am sure she shows you in her own way her dislike for him, I am sure she's expressing these things in other ways, too. Like school for instance. I guess what I am trying to say is, that sometimes when there are things going on at home it makes the kids anxious and they tend to… react, negatively in school. In this case, she sat there and cried until I had to stop class to attend to her."

"I am so sorry; I wish you could have called me. I would have come and got her, or at the least talked to her."

"I don't know that that would necessarily help the situation." Her face portrayed such a warning that Renee began to squirm. Renee nodded, worrying her lip.

"And there's the bathroom issue. She refuses to use certain bathrooms."

Panic filled Renee's face. "Was there a shower curtain in there?"

The teacher took a sharp intake of breath, eyebrows narrowing, "Yes, actually there is."

"Bella is afraid of shower curtains." Renee supplied. "She has been since she was a baby. She won't even touch them, let alone use a bathroom with one."

"Bella was at the nurse, checking for cuts on her skin from the scissors- which there were none- but Bella had to go in the nurse's restroom and there is a shower in there."

Renee exhaled and shook her head. She could imagine how upsetting that must have been for her daughter.

"And then there was also curtains around the beds in the nurses office-"

"Set her off, too, I bet. I bet she had an anxiety attack."

"Yes. She clawed her face with her fingernails and screamed. I had to physically lift her up and out of there before calming her down."

"She does that when she's stressed out," Renee mused, "She has an irrational fear of shower curtains. I wish you would have called me, or even her Grandmother."

Mrs. Perez smiled, thoughtfully. "We called you, that is why you're here. Have you thought of therapy for young Bella and maybe getting her tested for Autism?"

"No,"

"I think it would be a good idea," Mrs. Perez looked over at Bella who was watching the two from the corner of her eye, her hair shielding most of her face. Mrs. Perez leaned in and whispered, "She cried all through that music class, too. It was as if it was painful to her. I had to get a teacher to sit in the class with her and let her know everything was okay."

" Like I said, she is like that when she gets overstimulated or has anxiety."

"That explains her unwillingness to play in afternoon games."

"Yes, she does not love those." Renee frowned, remembering a neighbor's birthday party where Bella sat there in tears, ears covered from the noise of the kids screaming, laughing, and playing all around her. They had to leave early before Bella lost it.

"I just want what's best for Bella, and I know that you do, too. I think the more we can understand about her the better we can all help her." the teacher smiled kindly, again and rose from the desk.

"Thank you," Renee rose and shook the teacher's hand. "I'll talk to her father and let you know what we plan to do."

"That's all I ask."

ooOOOoo

"She doesn't act like that, here." Charlie huffed over the phone and Renee rolled her eyes and pierced her lips.

"Of course she doesn't. She's perfect for you and she's doing this to spite me. Is that what you're saying?"

Charlie mumbled incoherently.

"I didn't call to fight," Renee sneered before catching herself and taking a deep breath. "I called to tell you that I made an appointment with a counselor."

"She's a little girl, Renee. She'll grow out of this. Just leave her alone."

"The school insists. They even want release forms signed to access her medical records."

"No. Absolutely not."

"That's what I was thinking, too," Renee said softly, wanting to cry. Her husband still had yet to forgive her for leaving him with Bella. Everything was her fault and because Bella was probably just missing her Daddy.

It was his answer for everything.

"Take her to the counselor and have her evaluated if you must, but that's it." Charlie said gruffly. He was itching to get off the phone with his ex-wife.

"I'll let you know how it goes."

"Yep," Then there was dial tone.

.

A/N: There will be a few chapters here and there going back to her childhood so we can better understand how Bella is the way she is.

With that said, I don't write heart fail, so if you're not into a ton of angst and sorrow, feel free to keep reading. It's to be a beautiful story about a beautiful soul, love and a bit of whimsy. As ever, let me know what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

The Painter

Chapter 3

_"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson_

~O~

Kindergarten

Renee had just got through saying everything she could think of saying that may help the family therapist better understand and help her daughter. But now as she sat there, looking through the glass at her daughter nearby, she wondered if she said too much.

Sometimes she felt as if she said way too much, too soon.

"What's her relationship like with her father?" JoAnne White scribbled down notes fervently without looking up.

"Bella has a wonderful relationship with her father."

"When she sees him," the therapist said as she suddenly looked up at Renee, raking her with her glare.

Renee was instantly taken back by the sudden hostility but tried to recover. "She sees him during his visitation time," Renee added meekly.

"Hmm," the woman hummed and then sighed with exasperation. "And her relationship with this boyfriend…"

"Bella doesn't have a 'relationship' _this_ _boyfriend_, I do." Renee huffed and earned another withering glare from the therapist before she looked back down at her notepad and scribbled more notes. Renee sat up straighter. "I try to keep the two aspects of my life separate as best I can. Sometimes they overlap-"

"Were there any other life changes I should know about?"

"Like what?"

"There's been a divorce, a major move away from her home and her father- across the country. Then she's subjected to your boyfriends… is there any other life changes, such is abuse and the like?"

Renee turned her head. "The last boyfriend, and there's only been two, was slightly aggressive, but not violent that I know of."

"Slightly aggressive," JoAnne repeated as she it wrote down on her note pad. "And what does that mean, exactly?"

"He was… immature. He reacted badly to her a few times, even scared her."

"Is Bella's father more stable?" JoAnne said, changing the subject. She felt there was more to Renee's story that she wasn't giving up, yet.

"I really thought we'd delve more into Bella's issues at school and how we can better deal with them."

"Ms. Swan," the woman said condescendingly, "If a child's home life isn't safe, secure, and predictable kids- especially ones with Bella's emotional issues- are more likely to come up with coping mechanisms. That's what Bella is doing. She's coping the only way she knows how. Throwing a fit in music class or in the classroom suspends the class, to deal with her. Therefore, whatever the object affecting her, like the loud music or instruments, is stopped.

"With what you're describing as your history, I can expect that Bella is or will be pulled into many different scenarios, paraded by boyfriend after boyfriend after boyfriend while you go through a period of self-discovery- to the detriment of your child."

Renee's eyes widened in shock and horror at the woman's obtuse views of her, but the JoAnne just continued relentlessly.

"All of this, all of Bella's issues- is your fault. You're not being a good mother to her. I have half a mind to contact child protective services." The woman glared at Renee, piercing her lips. Renee was gob smacked at the woman's blatant and fabricated vitriol.

Tears flowed down Renee's face for a moment before she got up from her seat. "Obviously, you're jaded if you think that's what this is all about." Renee huffed. "Go ahead and call CPS on me, you and I both know it will be unfounded. I am a good mother and you obviously can't help my daughter."

The woman huffed as Renee walked to her daughter, grabbed up her small hands and her few little drawings and led her out of the office.

ooOOOoo

"She was the worst therapist ever," Renee sobbed.

"So find another one," Charlie grumbled.

"Some of the things she said rang true, but yeah, it hurt."

Charlie ran his hand over his face, torn between wanting to comfort his upset ex-wife and wanting to lash out at her for tearing their family apart. But it was all about Bella, getting Bella help.

"Get a new family therapist. Let her lead the conversation. Don't just spew your life story so she judges you. Go in there and make it about Bella." He said with a deep sigh. He wished he could wrap his arms around her little body and never let her go. Protect her from the world.

"Okay," Renee sniffed back her sob.

"It'll all work out, Renee." He added, hearing the slight sob. "You can put me on conference call next time, too, you know. You don't have to do this alone."

"I know, I didn't think that… that you wouldn't be there."

"I have to go, soon so please put Bella on."

"Okay, just one minute."

ooOOOoo

"She has an anxiety disorder and ADD," Renee said into the phone, spinning a pen on the kitchen table as Bella painted with her fingers in a baking sheet of food colored vanilla pudding, nearby. "She's not Autistic, but is on the spectrum."

"The spectrum?" Charlie questioned. Renee imagined his mustache twitching with his confusion.

"Yeah, all kids with sensory issues are on the spectrum, they said. It's like a rainbow with all kinds of levels. Since Bella has issues with textiles- which is touch and explains her issues with certain clothes. Auditory- which is sound and music, and then movement- which explains why she gets so upset when people move too fast or games and such. School games are a huge trigger for a meltdown."

"What can we do?"

Renee frowned. "They said we can try medicating her, or try to help teach her how to cope, teach the teachers how to deal with her anxiety. Get smaller classes with fewer distractions, which will ebb most anxiety."

"But will the school cooperate?"

"I got a paper to give to the school that lists her issues and how they can help accommodate her, so they have to, by law. She'll most likely have to go into the Special Education program."

"I don't like it."

Renee growled, flicking the spinning pen off the table. It fell onto the floor which caused Bella's breath to hitch and stop painting. She looked at her mother with sudden worry, eyes brimming with tears.

"It's okay, sweetheart," she whispered with a small, apologetic smile to her daughter. Bella looked back down and continued her pudding painting.

Renee then turned and got up from the table and whisper- yelled, "You don't have to like it, I don't have to like it- but's what is best for her. Kids like her are more susceptible to the world around her. You want her to harm herself or whatever, because if she doesn't get some help now she may do something horrible to herself when hormones start to kick in. That's what Carol said."

Carol was their new family therapist who was urging and leading them to actively find out what Bella's issues actually were and then empower her. She was wonderfully kind and Bella seemed to love her. Every time she came in, she gave Bella a stack of paper and pens to color which Bella lit up and she got to work on one of the first of many masterpieces. Carol helped them see that Bella was a budding artist and to allow that to thrive in her.

"What about the shower curtains and her issues with space and natural disasters?"

The list seemed to get longer and longer when it came to Bella and her anxiety and Charlie was at his wit's end.

"Carol said that's more of the fear of the unknown. Most she'll eventually overcome with age, so there's that. But in the meantime, she wrote a note to the school asking her to be excused from such lessons and books about space and natural disasters. But we have to do some work with her and the shower curtain. Expect screaming and fits for a long time."

"Oh, joy."

"Yeah."

.

A/N: Is that enough insight to her? Maybe.  
Thanks for reading and your reviews… see you tomorrow where we finally meet Bella!


	4. Chapter 4

The Painter

Chapter 4

_"I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life." ~ Paulo Coelho_

~O~

Present day

Renee stood at the kitchen sink, looking out of the windows at the Arizona setting sun. The harsh heat of the day caused the iridescent waves of heat to bounce off of the large span of concrete and although beautiful to look at, it also meant another day was almost done.

The days came and went quicker now, as she got older.

She released the breath in her chest and took a deep sip of her iced tea as Charlie's spoke, "You know how this sounds, Renee."

Renee grimaced at the way Charlie's scathing voice filtered through the phone. She held it slightly away from her ear as she placed her tea down on the counter.

"I can hear your perception, loud and clear." Sarcasm laced in every word.

"Good. Because to me, it sounds like you are only willingly- finally, and after years of asking for her- giving me my child because you want time with your boyfriend."

"That isn't it at all!" Renee shut her eyes shut so tight as if to appease the throbbing in her head talking to Charlie always caused her.

"You could have fooled me."

"Just… forget the past and listen to what I'm trying to say." Her voice cracked and she sobbed a little, especially hearing Charlie huffing and puffing. He was so angry still, after all these years and it always radiated through their conversations. It wrapped his words with a biting fury that she couldn't take for very long, if at all. "I am so worried about her. Bella's just so… desolate here. Her closest friend recently moved away and ever since she's just been in her room painting non-stop for days. It's a bit neurotic."

"So what if she's painting," Charlie grumbled. "She's doing what she's always been doing since she could grasp the concept. She's not going off the deep end."

This is where the two disagreed on the parenting of their child.

Renee wanted Bella out to see the world around her make friends, go to the mall… Charlie felt that Bella was young and could do what she wanted, including staying home and painting safe at home, if she wanted to as long as it didn't affect her schoolwork.

"She couldn't be more alienated from the outside world. She's even doing school online, now. She's up all day and night with her paints and canvas. She sometimes goes for days. Days, Charles!"

Charlie blustered at Renee using his given name, but otherwise didn't say anything to combat the remark.

What was there to say?

"Put her on the phone," He demanded and with Renee's sharp intake of breath, he knew she was taken by surprise. "Please," He added as an afterthought.

"She's not here, yet." Charlie growled out anger, "She isn't. She went to get some painting supplies. I can have her call you when she gets home."

"Do that," He said gruffly before he hung up the phone.

Renee, suddenly so very tired and shaking with tension, sat at the kitchen table and cried. She was so upset, but a small part of her was happy to release the entire tension calling Charlie usually caused her, and that maybe, just maybe the move to Forks would be a good thing.

ooOOOoo

Bella stood in the middle of her room, window open letting the cool, conditioned air escape into the vast heat of the Arizona morning.

The soft, gentle giggles of her mother talking to Phil infiltrated through the house and Bella gave a slight smile, picking up her brush and dabbing it into the deep purple that was her mother.

Lilac and lavender.

Amethyst.

Light dancing, swirling strokes with each small snicker and giggle stained the canvas while deep accented blue mimicked the purple in impeccable unison.

Pearls.

Perfection.

The mood bright and happy.

Flares of yellow and orange flicked the canvas, dramatically as the phone rang and the answering warm coffee brown dotted the canvas.

Charlie.

Warm toffees and rich creams of his morning caffeine.

Ambers that resembled his Ale bubbled and frothed on the canvas brutally jarring with the purple.

They didn't mesh, the colors too similar- yet different- yet the same in the twilight hours.

Only compatible for the moment of conception.

The words flew through the air assaulting her ears.

Anger.

So much anger.

Sadness.

Pain.

Fear.

Regret.

The vibrations of each syllable swirling around her mind digging like little needles into her brain, panicking her gentle disposition, hand twitching with jagged edges.

Eyes brimming with tears.

Salt and paint are not an exultant combination.

Salt warps.

She wanted to scream, yell, cry out, fall onto the floor and beg for her beloved quiet.

But there couldn't be any with the way they fought.

Bella put her brush into the paint thinner, the colors she was struggling with now all wrong.

The usually gracefulness of words grew ridged, giving her paint a darkness the painting didn't deserve.

The paint absorbed the negative emotions.

Purples, dulled.

Blues, icy, harsh and cruelly cold.

Reds, volatile.

Oranges and yellows, fiery hot with lingering smoke.

Browns like the dirt laying peace to the dead.

Never green.

Jade, lime, avocado, olive or emerald… those were only reserved for her dreams.

"Bella," Renee peeked through the door. "Telephone for you,"

Eyes wary and tired, lined with worry.

Grave.

.

A/N: Today was crazy. But I hope you like a glimpse of Bella and her world in the zone. Are any of you painters? I loathe being interrupted while sculpting, writing, and painting…  
As ever, thank you for your reviews and your alerts. You all make this fun.


	5. Chapter 5

The Painter

Chapter 5

"_As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better.." ~ Steve Maraboli_

~O~

"Hey Dad," Bella spoke softly into the phone. She could tell her father was upset based on the harshness of his breathing. There must have been quite the conversation between her parents as her mom was giving her a long, withering stare in the doorway.

"Hey, Bells… your mom says you've been busy painting."

Bella hummed as she eyed her mother. Renee slowly backed out of the room and closed the door. She wondered what her parents have been saying to each other about her, but then again, she could probably guess.

"I would say that's a matter of perspective," she snickered and her father chuckled. Everything was easier with Charlie. He didn't hover and her mom was a Blackhawk helicopter. He would let her be who she was without too much guilt and expectations. He wanted her to do what she loved, and that was painting. "Mom would probably say I am being reclusive, right? Like one of those hermits and locking myself away from her and the outside world. I would say that I am expressing myself through my art; busy creating vast unknown worlds with my hands and imagination."

"That is more poetic that your mother," he laughed. "She worries about your separateness, yes. She doesn't get it. She was never a homebody like us,"

Bella could only agree.

"I must have been very busy seeing the world in my past life as I have little need to see the outside world. I just want the quiet solitude of home." Bella teased in earnest.

Charlie gave an exasperated sigh, feeling for his child. He could totally relate. "You should come to Forks. We have quiet solitude here in spades."

"Dad," Bella gave a warning sigh, "You and I know she'll never allow it. I am like an appendage to her."

"Yeah, well, I am buying the plane ticket, so start to pack your things. We can get more canvas' and the like here in Seattle, so don't bother with those."

"Daddy," Bella wanted to cry, not sure if he was really serious or not. He sounded so serious.

But maybe that's why her mom was being so odd and complaining lately. Maybe she was ready for Bella to go live with Charlie.

It would also give her time with Phil, going out on the road trips with him, instead of pacing the floors during every baseball game, worry etched in her face.

"You're eighteen. You can live where you want to."

"But I'm not out of high school yet. I have my senior year to complete."

Bella's schooling was a hard subject for everyone. Although she was smart and a good student, even in several AP classes that also gave college credit, it had been a long road to get her there. Most schools didn't know how to deal with someone like her and they definitely didn't like to have to.

It wasn't until years later when she had threatened her own safety that she got a behavior therapist assigned to the case. Her IEP's were suddenly given and approved and the school psychologist in her elementary school was fired for her lack of care and initiative. She had suspected Bella was manipulating the educational process within the classroom, and ignored the panic attacks as a means for attention.

Bella had several years of apathetic teachers who openly despised her and felt comfortable in saying such to her. One went as far to say to Bella and later to her mother that she refuses to be held accountable for Bella's incapability to learn the curriculum.

That had been devastating to her family but was the catalyst for an outside source to come in and help rectify the situation.

Well, kind of…

With a change of schools and a diagnosis' in hand, Renee went into the school and demanded to speak to the principle. They took Bella in and put her into the special education system, honored her IEP and she began to slowly thrive.

But the other students were cruel, especially to a child how was so sensitive.

They taunted Bella relentlessly and pushed her, even screamed in her face. Until one day she started screaming in the classroom that she "just wanted to die," and the classroom grew quiet, kids backed away- which is what Bella had wanted in the first place.

The noise, movement, and the taunting made her just want to die.

The school considered Bella's words as a threat to her own safety, suicidal, and they contacted the crisis center and Bella was sent to the principle. Her parents were called, but Renee wasn't allowed to take her home due to her threat.

She was evaluated at the school by the crisis center employees.

It took hours.

But eventually, and with the talk and avid excitement of her paints and paintings, documents of her IEP and her anxiety disorder diagnosis, Bella was then sent home as she was not deemed a risk.

But that was a blessing. That brought Bella to Katie.

Katie, her behavioral therapist helped her assimilate within a classroom environment and calm her anxiety. She demanded the school to take action, smaller classes and a desk by herself.

Bella then thrived.

She even was taken off all medications and she raised all of her grades.

She spent peaceful moments painting and reveling in a calm home.

But as Bella sat there, her chest tightening with anxious excitement, she couldn't help but hope Charlie was being truthful that she could go to Washington.

Her mind raced with scenes of rivers and trees, leaves and sunsets. Stormy nights and winter wonderlands, she could endlessly paint with new inspirations.

"You can do your last year here, in Forks. It's a small town so small classes. You will love it here."

"Okay," Bella whispered, biting her lip to hide the slight smile. She didn't want to jinx it. "But you tell Mom."

"Okay. Check your email for your plane ticket, soon."

"Thank you, Dad."

"Yep. I love you, Bella."

"I love you, too, Dad."

ooOOOoo

Bella woke up in a start, the pallid hand still rousing and lively in her mind. She rushed to her paints and canvas and quickly pushed paints from their tubes onto her palette.

She dipped her brush into the little blobs of pigment and brushed the white canvas furiously before the image faded away.

The hand was marbled with an array of purples and blues portraying the hard, cold, frigidness. Wicked lines curved into the grasp as it reached through a mess of verdant leaves and thick, ancient, evergreen trees. It was as if she was running and the disembodied arm was trying to grasp her.

Pleading.

Tears fell as she added the deep purple and peachy shades of the morning sunrise, the air crisp and clean, awaiting the new day.

But there was more.

The hand that reached out to her had suddenly, violently flickered with a diamond spark on the tip of the closest finger. It was just for a small second and Bella wasn't sure she actually saw it, but it had been the catalyst in jolting her awake.

A sob escaped, emotions running rampant as her anxiety tainted her ability to paint; the lines were rapidly shaky and blurred.

Finally, calming herself enough from her emotions, Bella painted and tweaked the hand; giving it an iridescent shimmer and the background the inky blue-black bordering the leaves and hand.

She set the brush down in the paint thinner, knowing that the moment had finally passed and it was all just another tormenting dream.

Another piece, or clue or… something, anyway.

She wiped her hands on the cloth nearby and slowly found her way back into her bed.

The anxiety fatigued her, so sleep soon took over.

.

A/N: Thank you for taking time to read and review this story! You're thoughts make me so happy!

It's not going to be a slow burn. (I hate those) and many of you may think you have this figured out.. Maybe you do, Lol, but maybe, just maybe you don't.


	6. Chapter 6

The Painter

Chapter 6

_A passion for life is one of the most attractive qualities in a human being. If you want a teammate or a life mate who loves to be around you, all you need to do is love to be around." - Denis Waitley_

~O~

Getting off the plane, Bella felt like she could finally breathe. It was not because of the fresh air- because SeaTac was not a plethora of freshness; it was because of her new found freedom.

Leaving Renee behind felt amazing.

But as she looked around, Bella noticed one thing missing, her father, Charlie.

Bella's heart started to race instantly with visions of car crashes, lumber trucks losing their loads of logs which sent them all over the freeway, or maybe it could be a traffic stop gone awry keeping him. Could he have been speeding and took the sharp turns too fast and gone into Lake Crescent?

It was all, and more, entirely possible.

"stop it!" She closed her eyes tightly as her face started heating up, prickling with anxiety. Bella fumbled through her purse to find her phone.

A bit of calmness came and went as Bella palmed the mobile device and turned it on, waiting for it to power up.

It seemed to take forever.

People huffed and jeered at her as they tried to get around her. But she couldn't care, nor move from where stood in the middle of the aisle.

Bella couldn't move.

Maybe it was partly because there were tons of strangers milling around, or all of the sounds. She was terrified at what she would or wouldn't see on the screen.

"I'm okay. Everything's fine." She whispered to herself as she closed her eyes. "One- one thousand, two- one thousand, three," she counted higher, breathing in and out steadily as she was taught to do by Katie.

But then she heard Renee's shill voice.

_._

"_You need some excitement in your life!" Renee crowed as she entered Bella's room uninvited._

_Bella was annoyed as the woman started to pick around her room, moving her things._

"_Moving to Forks doesn't actually correlate with excitement or having a life." Bella rolled her eyes and pulled several sweaters from the bottom rack of her closet, picking through the lot of them. She seemed to have a sweater collection. _

"_You don't know that for sure! It's not all in our hands, you know. The fates are flicking your strings as we speak!"_

"_It's not fate bringing me to Forks. It's a plane reservation made with a credit card,." Bella huffed. But Renee could care less for her daughters' frustration. _

_Renee gasped and cupped her mouth with wide, dramatic eyes. "That isn't true… it could be fate by sitting next to your future husband on the plane-"_

"_It could also be the fate to crash into the Sound."_

"_Don't be such a brat. I am trying to converse with you."_

_Bella snickered, loving to rile up her mother a little. "I was just saying… one wayward turn, one crazy- unstable passenger, one sleepy pilot… Poof."_

"_Not my point! I am trying to say that this is a new chapter in your life, Bella. It's what you make of it, not that I am sending you to your death! If that's how you really feel you don't have to go! "_

_Ah, guilt with a splash of reverse psychology._

_Bella sat down on her bed and looked at her frazzled mother. It wasn't that she wasn't excited, because she was, but there was just something off about her mom's behavior. Not quite the definition of Bipolar, but maybe she was pre-menopausal or hormonal which amplified the craziness. _

"_I am sorry, Mom, I am excited to go to Forks. I am. But I am not going to go all crazy about it." A small smile curved her lips as her mom's eyes brightened and worry seemed to leave her features._

_Maybe that's all this was… motherly worry. _

"_Nervous, I get that." Renee smiled, appeased. She jumped up and hugged her daughter tightly, as if Bella's earlier scared her and she wanted to remember the moment. "Oh, I am so going to miss you though." _

"_I will miss you, too. I'm just a phone call away," Bella smiled, pushing her mother away and giving herself some breathing room. _

_Renee had a way of sucking all of the oxygen from the room and leaving you breathless in her wake. _

_Bella's mother moved about the room, in quiet thought for several moments before she picked a little figurine of a fairy threw it into the suitcase._

"_Good try, but I can't pack everything mother." Bella scoffed and picked up fairy up, walked across the room, and placed it back onto her shelf._

"_I know. Just… do me a favor?" Her eyes were a bit bleary as she waited for Bella to look at her. When she did she sighed, "don't tempt fate." _

_Bella nodded, solemnly as Bella turned away, taking out a few shirts and repacking them. But Renee just leaned on the door jamb and took one long look at her adult daughter before slipping out of the room._

_._

A melodic chime alerted Bella that her phone was finally loading, rousing her from her memories. The lights swirled and twisted, making Bella temporarily breathe out some of the pent up anxiety. But as swiftly as it left, it came back again when the notifications of three missed calls lit up the screen. It naturally pinged for each voicemail.

She saw the first was from Renee, wishing her luck and lots of intervening from the fates, the other two was from Charlie. The first one said that there was a death- a possible murder at the Mill, and he would be late. The other was a message Charlie asking if she could try to get a flight into Port Angeles or a hotel in Seattle overnight since he was still tied up in the case.

Forks had many animal attacks but barely ever had a murder so this was odd news indeed.

Bella walked to the first gate agent, with purpose and spent the next half hour asking any possible flights out, but it seemed that the flights to Port Angeles were full until the following day.

Bella was going to need to stay the night in Seattle.

She was not… NOT… not going to panic.

Okay, maybe she will a little.

Sitting on the chair, Bella's shaky hand reached into her purse to quickly find her noise cancelling headphones. She put them on, instantly happy with the muted noise and then took out a piece of gum and sucked on it. She enjoying the sickly sweet flavors and closed her eyes.

She was just going to block everyone out, for a few minutes.

Concentrating on her breathing, Bella sat, hearing her own breath, her heartbeat, and the distant squeal of a nearby child.

This was okay.

Everything is fine.

"People do this all the time," Bella muttered to herself, "and I am eighteen, leaving for college in less than a year… I can do this. Seattle isn't that scary. I just need a plan."

She sat there for a few more minutes, before opening her eyes to see the screen of her phone.

"Hotels," She sighed with a frown, trying to ignore the way people bustled around as she typed in her GPS. Several popped up and Bella glared at each one, knowing she was in for a walk, or a taxi ride.

Bella texted Charlie that she was stranded until tomorrow, the name of the nearest hotel, and then asked him if he could call in a reservation for her. She then asked him to book her a flight, since she was unable to do it without a credit card. He agreed.

She then texted Renee said she made it to Seattle and that great and all was well.

Getting up from her seat and dragging her suitcase behind her, Bella walked out the sliding glass doors into the Seattle rain, in search of the hotel.

Looking at the cloudy sky and the misty air around her, Bella could only smile.

If this was fate, she definitely had a sense of humor.

.

A/N: So, to reiterate: Bella has an Anxiety disorder with sound, textile (touch) and movement. There are coping methods that she will have to go about her day, but she won't always, in each circumstance, need things like, headphones or gum, making up a plan of action to reduce anxiety, and counting. It's just a few things my daughter uses to cope with the outside world. I don't know if anyone has any history or experience with someone with anxiety, but they are amazing and brave people.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!


	7. Chapter 7

The Painter

Chapter 7

"_And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, "You owe me." Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky." ~Rumi_

~O~

"SeaTac airport hotel, SeaTac airport hotel…" Bella says out loud to herself over and over, not wanting to forget, as she starts down the street looking for the shuttle to go to the hotel as she was directed.

The sweet smell of rain assaults her senses as she's pelted on her face and head with rain.

Bella smiles.

But reality hits her as she approaches the street. The soft drizzle was instantly tainted by the rancid black asphalt, motor oil, and grey puffs of exhaust. Even so, it was a welcome change from the harsh Phoenix weather.

Bella holds her breath, not wanting the free-radicals in the exhaust to enter her lungs as she shuffled forward in a rush. The sooner she could get away from all of the cars and people, the happier she would be.

Bella pulls the suitcases behind her, finally seeing her shuttle and gives a mental high-five she doesn't have to wait.

She climbs in, seeing all the other quiet, exhausted travelers and takes a seat, as far from them as possible.

ooOOOoo

"I don't understand the problem with your room, ma'am," the woman's exasperated, disembodied voice huffed in the phone.

But Bella was pacing the three steps the phone would allow her and then the three steps back to the nightstand and back again.

"It has a shower curtain," Bella bit out, her jaw tight. "I was asking if there was a room that possibly had a glass shower door-"

"No, Ma'am, we only have the curtained tubs in all of our rooms. I do apologize that we can't accommodate you," the jeering, sickly sweet voice bit out. "Perhaps you can just take a bath, hmm? Enjoy you're stay and do feel free to call the front desk for any_ other_ needs."

There was a click, ending the call as the dial tone filled the room.

Bella looked at the closed bathroom door and closed her eyes, shutting it away.

She wasn't going to flip out. She had overcome "the fear of the unknown" a while ago, but she still avoided them as much as she could.

Bella laid over her bed, instantly remembering…

.

"_One touch, Bella," Renee gasped. "Carol said baby steps and you need to become okay with touching the curtain. This isn't MY doing, so please…please, just touch the curtain!"_

_Bella stood staring at the shower curtain, shaking her head as her eyes got impossibly wider. _

_Before Bella could flip out, Renee picked up her hand. "Hey, calm down… First time we'll do it together, okay? You'll see that it can't hurt you."_

_She pulled forward Bella's hand and Bella recoiled. _

"_Please don't! Please!" She begged and locked her knees. Her impotent toes tried to dig into the tile like roots to try to hold her back. _

"_I'm not the bad guy!" Renee pleaded and pulled, but Bella was already losing it, fast. Her bleary eyes dripped salty tears over her small ten year-old face._

"_I'll be good!" Bella screeched, begging. "I promise I'll be good! I promise!"_

_Renee, eyes watering too, released her grip on her hand and just held it, softly._

_Bella panted as her little body shook._

_Renee hated Carol at that moment but she sat Bella on the toilet, giving her a moment reprieve from the evil curtain._

"_Hey, sweetheart," Renee sighed. "Stop. Sometimes you have to do the things you're the most afraid of, Bella, or the fear consumes your whole life. You can't touch the curtain today, that's fine, you tried, but you need to do it tomorrow. You will have to touch it and you will see that you'll be okay."_

_Bella's head shook back and forth, swaying the brown locks as they framed her wide, tearful brown eyes. She emitted an odd whining his from her mouth before she said, "Just a touch? One finger?"_

"_Which ever finger you want and we'll be done for the day." Renee smiled kindly. _

"_And then I can call Daddy?" Bella whispered, the tear lining her face._

"_I am sure he'll want to hear all about how you successfully touched the shower curtain." Renee doubted her words, but appeasing the therapist was easier than appeasing her ex-husband. He was avid to just let it go and let her grow out of it. But the therapist didn't think that would happen and conquering the fear would only help Bella in the long run._

"_You said one finger." Bella bit at her lips a little as she awaited the answer._

"_Yep!" _

"_And then can I paint?"_

_Renee's smile fell slightly. "If you would like… but after dinner and homework._

"_Okay."_

"_Okay?" Renee beamed. _

_She stood them up as Bella wiggled out of her mother's hand that was cupped over hers. She stretched her arm out and quickly reached forward until the tip of her pointer finger touched the waterproof fabric._

_Barely. _

_Bella ran out of the bathroom like her hair was one fire._

_Renee sat on the toilet, glaring at the shower curtain, wondering if something could have happened that would make her daughter so irrationally afraid._

"_It was horrible. I hate them." Bella said from the other room, no doubt talking to Charlie. "Why do they have to move when you open the door, then?"_

"_Drafts move them?" _

"_Do you have shower curtains? Just one? Can you fix it? I like the glass shower ones."_

"_No!" Bella suddenly cried out loud, startling Renee, but Bella seemed okay and she didn't know what the comment was to offer any help. _

"_She says I have to touch it, every day, and eventually hug it." _

"_Yes, sir… I'll tell her sorry." Meekly, Bella eyed her mother who stood there leaning on the door jamb. Renee smiled lightly and rolled her eyes making Bella sniffle and smile._

"_In mommy's shower… it's glass."_

"_Okay… sorry you have to go… love you, too."_

_Bella hung up the phone and looked at her mother. _

_Renee's heart went out to her child, knowing that her life was going to be a long hard road. But so was Renee's and she managed to get through it almost unscathed. _

"_You alright?" Renee asked her daughter softly. Bella's shoulders sag with exhaustion but she nodded her head as she just stared at the phone. "Okay… I should go do something for dinner..." _

_Silence._

_Looking at her daughter in so much pain made Renee so sad. Bella looked at her mom moments later, as if she sensed her mother's emotions but then looked back down, sulking again. _

_Bella seemed so emotionally spent that she could barely move._

_The silence was deafening. _

_Renee's face scrunching up with the bitter words she was about to say, but it wasn't about her… it was about Bella and seeing her in so much pain hurt her heart. _

"_Why don't you go paint as I go get started with dinner."_

_Bella wasn't really looking and definitely wasn't paying attention until the words circled around the room for several second and then into Bella's ears. She looked up with excitement before she buckled it down. "Okay."_

"_Oh, and Bella? You did a wonderful job today," Renee beamed. "You even didn't hide or hurt your face, this time so that is something to be proud of." _

_Tears fell down freely as Bella's shoulders rocked, tension leaving her body in painful reds and blues._

_So much love and so much sadness for such a small child._

_._

"The flight was delayed," Bella opened up the blackout curtains as the dreary sky gave muted tones of greys. She switched the phone from one ear to the other as her mother babbled on. "No, I'm in a hotel, now. I'll head to Forks in the morning so there's no need to worry."

"Are you okay?" Renee's soft voice soothed Bella.

"I am. I've locked the door and I had food brought up."

"You didn't go outside?"

"I didn't-"

"Bella," Renee chided, "There's a big world out there. You can't just paint it. You have to live in it."

"Because I didn't go see Seattle by myself, alone, I am not braving the world?"

"I didn't mean that." Renee huffed. "Safety first, always, but would it hurt to at least go to the hotel lobby for food?"

Bella scrunched her face, swirls of black clouding her vision. "I have to go," she bit out before telling her mother goodbye and handing up the phone.

She moved through the hotel room toward her bags and opened them up. Bella pulled out the canvas she stowed away without Renee knowing. Next, she pulled out her paints, and set them up with browns and blacks and greys.

Tears fell over flushed cheeks, hands shaking as she dipped the brush into the paint and felt a bit of the rush of anxiety leaver her.

Gray with a bit of silver, white, and a touch of blue covered the soft bristles as she pushed the paint into the canvas. On and then up. On and then up. Over and over, jiggling the brush to the sides and ending with a soft line. Puffy, angry clouds appearing moments later with little bit of purple added a dramatic, livid bottom of the clouds.

A sob escaped as she dabbed more and more paint.

Steely gray rage.

With her dry brush, she pulled the paint down creating long wisps of "rain" falling from the clouds.

She dropped the brush into her water, the acrylic paint tinting the water the color of the Seattle sky.

Brown.

A new brush with coarse bristles sucked up the Burnt Sienna paint greedily.

Long lines of bark shadowed with black.

Branches reaching at nothing, their twiggy fingers bare of leaves.

Bella then painted herself into the tree.

Chin up toward the sky and allusive Sun.

One arm framed over her head, pin lines of vines, creeping up, locking her in.

Assuring she's out there, body untouched and immobile as any tree would be in the deepest, loneliest forests.

"There!" Bella yelled, slamming the brush down and buckling over to cry.

She'd detail it more, later.

Maybe.

.

A/N: A picture of Bella's self portrait is on my Facebook page under Everleigh Allen. You can usually find me there. I don't know who rec'd me in A Different Forest but I do appreciate it! I've never been rec'd before on a forum! I have set up a profile up there today, but am not sure how to make my way around as of yet. Al mistakes are mine, forgive! As always, thank you for your kind reviews and alerts. You all make this fun.


	8. Chapter 8

The Painter

Chapter 8

"_The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm." -Aldous Huxley_

~O~

The knock at the door interrupted Bella from her sobbing.

She looked toward the door with freight, motionless.

The knock sounded again and this time Bella stepped tentatively forward. Each step was like trudging through a swamp, muddy browns and tarry blacks with coal vines locking around her ankles and wrists.

"Who is it?" She called out, her hair falling over her face as she takes another step forward. She pulls it back, noticing the cold sweat beading over her forehead.

"Are you alright in there?" A honeyed feminine voice calls from behind bourbon stained oak door.

"Fine! Sorry!" Bella cried out, nervously.

"Can you open the door just so we can make sure?" The visitor asked, worriedly. "I don't think I could go to our room comfortably knowing someone was upset or in potential danger."

Bella groaned, shifting from one foot to the other.

What would Charlie do if he found out that she opened the door to strangers?

Strangers that no one would know she let into room. They could be murders, spying on rooms as they walked by waiting for a victim to "help."

She didn't even want to think about it.

"Nope. No can do. I don't want to be murdered." Bella bit at her lip with worry as she watched for any breach of the door.

There was no answer from the other side for several moments so Bella carefully moved forward to check if anyone was still there or not.

Bella looked though the peep hole and saw a woman with burgundy hair with mustard highlights holding a cell phone to her ear as a man stood next to her with his hands in his pockets. He had a perfect coif of flaxen gold hair. But what if they called someone regarding her sobs?

"Would you be more comfort if we called security to have a look around? We heard sobbing and I just can't help but want to offer assistance."

Worry filled Bella's eyes; her heart- red and anxious, pounded painfully hard in her chest at the thought of security barging through the door, going through all of her room and her stuff.

Then security would -most definitely- call Charlie, who would then call Renee, who would then raise Hell- demand her to come back to Arizona, and Bella could kiss her newfound freedom from her mother goodbye.

"There's really no need! I was just a little upset-"

"Oh, then we should definitely talk about it!" The woman said lightly with a laugh, moving the phone from her ear and giving it to the man behind her. "I am a mom and you seem so young and upset. I'd just like to see for myself that you're okay… just one minute at most and I'll be on my way."

"Okay," Bella twisted the lock but sat there for several moments before she finally got enough courage to open the door.

The woman, who seemed very calm- overly calm, stood alone in the door way scrutinizing Bella's swollen, tearful eyes and messy hair. Her clothes were disheveled as if she were lying down. She could see something was slightly off, yet familiar about her.

The odor of paint scented the small space, but it was temporarily ignored.

Bella took in the woman's bright, gold eyes alit with sudden humor and soft features. Her clothes were immaculate and expensive; too expensive for such an inexpensive hotel.

"Can I come in?" She smiled kindly but she noticed Bella looking behind. "That's just my husband. He can stay outside, or go to our room and it can be just me and you if you prefer."

"Okay." Bella was resigned. She knew she wasn't going to get out of this impromptu encounter with the stranger and there didn't seem to be anything overtly threatening about the woman. So she moved aside as the man waved and walked away.

Bella shut the door as the woman walked into the small hotel room.

"You're an artist." She said. It was a statement, no questioning the scene as she looked it over.

"I try. It soothes me when I am upset."

"Are you upset often?" She asked lightly, like one would inquire about the weather.

"I try to paint often. I am not often upset… anymore."

"Hmm," The woman cocked her head to the side and spent another moment looking at the artwork before turning to look at Bella. "My son plays the piano. My daughter… she stalks the stock market, my husband is a closet online shopper, mostly for religious artifacts, and I draw. We all have our ways of dealing with things."

They shared a giggle.

"I am Bella." She lifts her alabaster hand.

Beaming, the woman grasps Bella's, "Esme Cullen, so nice to meet you, Bella."

The woman's hands are cold. Very cold, like ice. _Cold hands warm heart_, her grandmother used to say. "Nice to meet you," strawberries and cream flush her face as she drops Esme's hand.

"So what is a young girl like you doing in a hotel room in Seattle?"

The woman is warm with topaz eyes and coffee cream skin. But she smells like lavender vanilla perfume, similar to Bella's grandmother used to wear.

She was comforting in a spill-your-secrets-while-I-hold-you kind of way.

"My father was tied up working a case and couldn't pick me up. I am on standby for a flight to Port Angeles. He should pick me up there."

"Oh, you live in Port Angeles?"

Bella shook her head before she sat on the bed and the woman followed suit.

"My father lives in Forks. He's the Chief of Police."

"Oh, Chief Swan," Esme smiled.

Bella squinted, "Uh, yeah."

"We live in Forks, too. We're actually just staying the night in Seattle to get away from the kids. We'll be driving there tomorrow if you want a ride."

A small smile played at her lip. She would definitely prefer a car ride opposed to braving the airport.

"I would love that." Bella sighed, finally letting go of the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Excellent!" The woman bound up from the bed. "Text Charles and tell him, and we'll be by to pick you up in the morning at 9 am." She moved toward the door, grasping to handle before she stopped and looked back at Bella who was still sitting on the bed. "Are you going to be alright tonight, Bella? Are you okay?"

Bella gave a small but sincere smile. "I am okay. Thank you."

"Well, I am off to get some rest. See you in the morning, dear."

With that, she was gone.

Bella was alone again.

She turned toward her painting and turned her head to the side, trying to see what the woman was seeing.

She never asked her about her crying or why.

She just was there to intervene and try to help.

Bella smiled.

Her mother would have bombarded her with so many questions, always needing to know what may be the problem so she could fix it.

But then it dawned on Bella.

Renee was no longer there to fix anything, to question anything and everything. That was all on her now.

Bella took out her phone and texted her father.

**Ran into someone named Esme and she'll take me to Forks if you want. ~B**

Minutes later she received a text back.

**Esme Cullen? ~Dad**

**I guess so. ~B**

**Good people. That would be great. ~Dad**

**K. Leaving around 9 am. Good night. ~B**

**Sleep well, bumblebee. ~Dad**

.

A/N:

So the Cullen's (well, two of them, anyway) have found Bella and come to the rescue. YAY. Awful nice of them, I'd say.

Thank you to Tarbecca for recommending me and Bellebiter for asking me to a "campfire" I shall try to figure it all out. :D As ever, thank you for reading and your kind reviews. I appreciate them even if I can't respond to each one. I am currently trying to paint some Nightmare Before Christmas shoes to auction for Make A Wish. You can see them (so far) on my FB, as well as Bella's "self-portrait" of her and the tree (which I "borrowed" from someone.)

Long, skinny evergreens with reaching branches, full on harsh, shrill needles lined the road.


	9. Chapter 9

The Painter

Chapter 9

"_We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives." ― John F. Kennedy._

~O~

Bella checked out of her hotel room and then walked outside and into the clean, fresh air. Cerulean skies with cotton clouds drifted lazily over the morning sky. Jade and Emerald grass buckled, heavy with morning dew as the wind danced around her, lifting her hair to whisper its secrets.

Bella was itching to paint it all!

She could smell the trees, their leaves, the freshwater rain, and the slick brown mud. Whereas, Phoenix smelled of old dirt, exhaust, fresh cut grass, and the occasional orange blossoms.

It was a welcome change.

"Thank you so much again!" Bella grinned as she was led into the parking lot and to a shiny new car with plenty of room for a dead body or two if needed, but not that she was going to think about that.

_One, two, three, four… they're good people; Charlie said so himself… one, two, three…_

She got into the back seat of the Cullen's onyx and chrome SUV feeling the soft, tan leather with silent awe. It was the most expensive, nicest vehicle that she had ever been in before and couldn't help the nervous excitement coursing through her.

"It's our pleasure!" Esme smiled kindly, looking behind her at Bella from the front seat for a moment before facing forward again.

Bella put her painting on the seat next to her, as Carlisle put all of their bags into the back. That was the good thing about acrylics; they dried fast, but she still didn't want it to get wet or ruined.

"We can take the ferry or drive around the long way and onto Forks, you're choice." Carlisle said when he finally took the driver's seat, buckled in and started the car.

"Oh, the ferry sounds fun."

Esme grinned as she turned her head toward Bella. "That's a great! You can eat lunch on the ferry and we'll people watch."

People. Watch them. Watch them pass, snicker, and possibly tease.

With a nod Bella smiled, adrenaline prickling her skin.

She was lucky to have met such nice people so she was really trying to keep it together. The last think she needed was her companions being imposed in any way with her presence.

But as Carlisle soon slowed to a stop behind a plethora of cars Bella bit at her lip, watching all of the cars ahead. She saw that the line onto the Ferry was long, which meant a lot of people. She wasn't expecting that.

All the times she's been to Seattle, they never took the ferry… how odd.

It was then that Bella realized that Charlie never gave her the ferry choice and he always just drove the long way, probably to minimize her anxiety.

There was a beep alerting Esme's phone and she pulled it out of her purse for seconds, looked at it and then put the phone away so fast it was as if it didn't actually happen.

It was odd.

"Carlisle," Esme announced. I think I could use a distraction. Bella, there is a divine place up the street that sells the most delicious crepes. Would you like that instead of braving the questionable ferry cafeteria?"

Bella, who held her breath the moment Esme talked- let it out in a long sigh and nodded.

Both women got out of the car and walked down the street, silently.

"I want to tell you a long, boring story to distract us." Esme grinned as she side-eyed Bella.

Bella could only agree, wanting to hear anything the woman wanted to tell her. She couldn't help but be fascinated with the Esme since the moment she had met her.

"When I was a young girl," Esme started, quietly as if she was deep in thought. "You didn't really get to choose who you would marry if you were female. If a man showed interest in you and you're parents were agreeable, it was pretty much a done deal. So, I never gave love a second thought. No one I knew was ever really in love. So, his attentions were interesting and pleasing, so I agreed to wed him and that was that. We picked a warm afternoon and signed on the dotted lines.  
It was nothing like the grand romances portrayed in the movies. "

"Sounds horrible."

"Oh, it was, believe me." Esme barked out a laugh before continuing. "I didn't know what true love was anyway, until I learned I was pregnant with my son. Love so acute it was almost painful… and then he died."

Bella sucked in a breath and faltered her steps. But Esme kept walking as if it never happened and Bella caught up.

Esme then continued. "He lived for several days and right then- holding him in my arms- I knew he was the most important thing in the world to me. I would have done anything for him. So, naturally, I was heartbroken when he died suddenly and unexpectedly. I sought solace with my husband but he didn't take it well, either, and became horribly mean with words and actions. Life is so delicate, you know?" Bella nodded, not that Esme noticed. She was pensive and lost in memories that tortured her soul. "He wanted a son more than anything and when our son died, I had failed him. He told me that. He hit me the night they came to take him away.

They were taking him to be… prepared for… burial and I lost it.

It still hurts to say."

Bella and Esme walked in silence for a moment as the sky decided it was a good time to drizzle.

"I couldn't go to the funeral with a black eye and of course you know he did that on purpose! But I was young and naive and I was going anyway..."

Esme was quiet for several moments. "He made it so I couldn't go to our own son's funeral because I was in the hospital.

He put me there.

He came to my bedside, seething, and he said that since I wasn't able to bear his children that he wanted a divorce; an annulment. In those times was virtually unheard of, of course.

It made me feel even worse.

Less.

My doctor, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, casted me up and I was released to my husband's care. Begrudgingly, of course, and I told my husband that I wanted to go for a walk before getting my things.

I went to the cliffs and jumped.

But I didn't die.

I laid there for hours, too much in pain to move, watching the tide rise higher and higher, licking at my broken and bruised skin.

You know what I thought about?"

Bella stopped and looked at Esme with wide eyes. With a small frown she whispered, "Your son."

Esme nodded and started to walk again, turning to go into a quaint store. "Life is short and you could go for no reason other than it was your time."

Bella gave a polite smile as they both looked at the menu and then ordered. Then they went outside to sit at a nearby table so Esme could continue.

"I was bruised, battered, broken, and about to drown and the only thing I could think of was that in mere moments I was going to go and hold my precious baby again.

Fate had different plans for me in the form of a blond haired, kind hearted, soul.

He had heard my sobs after he had come to the house to check in on me and learned that I wasn't there.

Worried my husband had done something to me; he rushed out and searched everywhere he could think of.

He found me, face up, crippled, and lying on the rocks.

He saved me that day, in so many ways... But, the moral of my story is that although parents will do anything for their children, usually, fate always has the last laugh because I didn't go back to my husband.

He nursed me back to health and I started a new life with Carlisle and we never looked back.

Your mom may think she knows what's best for you, and maybe she did. But you were a child then and she knows she has to let you go, now. She's taken you as far as she possibly can and now it's up to you.

This, Bella, this is your chance at starting your new life. Find a great love… You're an adult, now, right? You get to choose love and choose what you want to do. You don't need to go down my road. It's long and lonely.  
You cannot just stow away and paint."

Bella say awestruck and dumbfounded, trying to take it all in when her name was suddenly called, and Esme's soon after.

They went and got their crepes and started walking toward their car.

"You sound like my mom, there… telling me I need to see the outside world. Not just look at it from the inside."

"Well, moms always take their own experiences in account to mother their children. You're mother probably had strict or controlling parents."

Bella looked at Esme. How could she know that?

"You have to consider her like experiences, but not necessarily relive them. I guess what I am trying to say, but messing up so amazingly, is that you don't have to be just like her to be happy. Besides, once you become friends with my daughter, there will be a whole different perspective on life." She laughed at was seemingly a humorous inside joke that Bella couldn't understand.

"What ever happened with your ex-husband?"

Esme gave a small smile, eyes lit with honeyed topaz and gold flecks. "Karma, I'd say, because he was never able to bare another child, not that he didn't try. He avidly wanted an heir to his "fortune" which wasn't much in standpoint to now, but it was a fair amount back then. He had several wives, but fate listens, you know, and she never gave in. I, on the other hand, was able to have one that we adopted and one Carlisle and I had together. My sister's children came to live with us, too, but they are older and exploring the world, right now, just as they should be."

"So you got your son?"

Esme didn't answer; she just gave Bella a slight smile.

They walked the rest of the way in silence until they got to the car and the cars started to move onto the ferry.

.

A/N: Ever have a horrible boyfriend? I did have a few…

Esme was trying to distract Bella as well as give her insight. I hope she did okay. It's not cannon- other than the character pairings, remember? It's also late, so forgive my mistakes.

Thought's on Edward? Alice? Esme? Carlisle? Like I said, not huge on angst.

The next few weeks are going to be sporadic posts, so sorry in advanced, but I will do my best at 3 per week. See you on FB, maybe. As ever, thank you for reading and your kind reviews.  
Jansails… you are too clever…


	10. Chapter 10

The Painter

_Chapter 10_

_"To breathe your own truth is your heart's most burning desire. To live your purpose is your soul's lifelong dream." ~ Dodinsky_

~O~

Everything is a comfortable quiet as Bella and Esme get in the car.

Carlisle drives onto the ferry and parks the car, but they just sit there watching as some people get out of their cars and trucks and make their way to the upper levels.

Bella sits back, releasing her breath slowly.

Breathing is cleansing to someone who has anxiety.

It's purifying and takes concentration.

So Bella breathed in and out, closing her eyes.

She can do this.

She didn't even feel much anxiety as she usually would have when she was walking with Esme. Not in the slightest. This was definitely odd.

Usually, when she was out with Renee, Bella was always on alert.

_._

"_Bella," Renee sighed with exasperation, dragging her through the biggest malls in Arizona, Arizona Mills. It was always packed full of people, all busily trying to get to where they wanted to be. Bella spent the time dodging and weaving through the crowds. "Just one meal. It will be nice. It's kid themed."_

_Bella stood there eyeing the monstrosity with wide, fearful, seven year-old eyes. _

_She shook her head adamantly as her mother pulled her forward and stopped in front of the Rainforest Café. They watched as the alligator, which sat in a few inches of water, outside of the restaurant hissed, growled, and chomped as fog surrounded it. Giggling children surrounded the alligator and tried to throw pennies into its mouth each time it opened and shut its mouth._

_Bella and Renee walked in and looked at all the fake animals peeking out of the lush, plastic jungle. _

_It wasn't so bad…_

_Then all the sudden after they ordered their food, the lights dimmed, the fake birds squawked, gorilla's and elephants and tigers and monkeys all made their respectively aggressive sounds and movements. _

_Tears lined Bella's eyes, breaths panting._

_Then fake lightning and rain. _

_Bella made this odd little fearful groan. She covered her mouth with her hand trying to blanket her screams, as her fingers dug in her fleshy cheeks. _

"_Bella, breathe!" Renee hissed. "Look around you, everything is fine… you're okay!" _

_A shrill cry escaped and people started to look towards her, eyes furrowed and judging._

"_It's almost over now, any second… breathe." Renee gasped, going through her purse and finding Bella's headphones. She got up and put them on to her daughter's ears and looked around her._

"_She's fine," she told the people around her, apologetically. They looked at them as if her daughter was a bomb about to explode. "She just doesn't seem to like all the noise and movement." Renee shrugged like it wasn't anything to be bothered by and people started to look away. _

_Renee looked at her little girl in headphones and little crescent wounds, with sympathy. on her cheeks lit with a tinge of blood. Bella's eyes stayed closed, listening to the soft melodic notes of Clare De Lune._

_The waiter came by and asked if they wanted their food to be changed to go and Renee nodded solemnly. _

_Bella's eyes suddenly caught her mothers in apology, but Renee just shook her head with a small, kind smile and an apology of her own._

_._

"Do you want to stay down here or go onto the deck?" Esme asked kindly. She was turned in her seat and smiling at Bella as Carlisle played a game on his phone. "We're fine with either, just so you know."

Bella smiled. "Can we stay her for a bit and then maybe go on the deck for a couple pictures?"

Esme smiled brightly, "Of course."

Opening the packaging for her crepe, Bella tore off a piece and then put it in her mouth. It was a comfortable silence between the three of them while she ate and she couldn't help but wonder what it was like for their kids to have as such mellow parents.

Bella's mother was strict, usually, but not mean. She teetered on enforcement and aloof, depending on her mood. Renee tried to handle Bella, but at times Bella was a bit too much to handle, and Renee would be told that structure and predictability was key and she would go with that for a while…

Bella could only laugh, now.

Maybe _she_ was the reason Renee was a little neurotic.

It would explain a lot.

"Something funny?" Esme asked, merrily. Bella looked up at her in confusion.

"I'm sorry?"

"You giggled, so I was naturally curious, wondering if you wanted to share what was so entertaining."

"Esme gets bored easy," Carlisle added softly, still not looking up from the game. "She's always keeping either her mind or her mouth busy."

Esme gasped with wide eyes and swatted at her husband playfully.

He chuckled and then looked at Bella in the rear view mirror, eyes very similar to his wife's- but darker, and winked at her.

Bella blushed instantly and it was as if Carlisle's eyes turned slightly darker.

But before she could ponder the idea he looked down, his phone making staggering noises that sounded as if his character perished.

He grunted and Bella then noticed that she was staring, so she looked away.

"I was just thinking about my mom," Bella said, answering Esme's question.

"Oh?" Esme grinned, eager to get any bit of info Bella would give her.

"It's nothing big. I was remembering how she had to deal with me being anxious all the time. She wasn't the most consistent parent, always trying new ways to handle my issues. She went from strict to aloof- depending on what doctor or teacher or therapist was in her head at the time."

"That's what was funny?" Esme's eyes were narrowed in confusion, her smile fading.

"Just that I probably made her a bit crazy… it made me laugh." Bella shrugged.

"What kinds of things did you do?" Esme wanted to keep Bella talking.

With another shrug, Bella picked at her crepe and put a bit in her mouth to bide time. But Esme's eyes were penetrating in their stare- like she wasn't ever going to give up until Bella told her something.

Bella huffed and then said, "My mom didn't like taking me to the mall," Bella looked down and played with her wrapper as she spoke. "I have issues with sound, textile, movement, and anxiety- as you probably know or I've said… but it was Christmas and she was in a hurry. We stopped at a small mall and were at one of the department stores. She walked onto the escalator and thought I was following, but I wasn't. I just stood frozen at the top, unable to move. She had tried to walk back up, dodging disgruntled people, but she didn't care. She was going to go get me if that was the last thing she did."  
Bella giggled. "But she was finally blocked, rode it down and ran to the next one that takes you up, the whole time trying to watch me, and make sure I knew she was coming. By that time I was already crying. You see, I had got stuck on an escalator previously- my laces went into the steps and I fell, skinning my knees… anyway, it scared me, so I didn't want to go back on one. Mom was trying to make me, and I just screamed and cried in the middle of the store. She was so embarrassed, hissing at me, and trying to get me to go with her.

I didn't. We finally took the elevators when she couldn't get me to move. She said that I had to at least try to get back on the escalator someday...

She doesn't always understand me, you know? I don't want to be in the big bad world. I want to be in the calm quiet, safe world. In my room, painting, you know?

She doesn't always get it, although she tries, since she never gave up. And I try, too, I guess."

Bella shrugged again and put the crepe in her mouth quickly as if to have an excuse to not speak.

"Moms do the best we can. We don't always do everything right, which I guess would be job security for the psychiatric field." Esme grinned with her little jest, but then went somber. "So, I get what you're saying. My daughter Alice doesn't love the dark. She has excellent sight and such, but put her in the dark and she used to lose her cool, sometimes she still does depending on the situation. She doesn't know why, she just does. And that's okay, we just modify and encourage. She doesn't have to be_ in_ the darkness, just because she's afraid of it. She adapts and learned to live with it… But she has a little flashlight in her purse, you know, just in case." Esme winked and Bella chuckled.

"As I have my headphones."

Esme nodded and became thoughtful, "Just like me… just because someone chose to hurt and abuse me once, doesn't define me forever more, you know? There comes a time in your life that you learn you are not classified by the things you have had to overcome, you are more than that, and you have to become more than the things that define you- if that makes sense."

"Which is why my mom wants me out in the world and not closed off- just because it's easier… safe." Bella mused.

Esme just shrugged and turned forward in her seat. "Let me know when you want to go up on deck."

.

A/N: So Bella has more to think about.


	11. Chapter 11

The Painter

Chapter 11

"I don't have a fever. My internal cooling system is malfunctioning." ~My clever son, The Boy.

~O~

"It's raining," Bella looked out at the slight drizzle, "Which is perfect to go up there, I guess, since there won't be many people out there."

Esme hummed as she intently stared at the book she was reading.

Bella bit at her lip, looking around the car for a moment before she opened the door.

"Would you like us to come with you?" Esme asked, not looking from her book.

To Esme, wording her questions in a way that made it Bella's choice was all about empowering her. Give Bella a sense of control by making it her decision so she could have small victories.

"If you could, that would be great…" Bella bit her lip. "But I don't want to be a bother."

"No bother," Esme beamed, getting out of the car before Bella could change her mind.

Carlisle got out too, begrudgingly, but lingered behind the two women as they made their way up the stairwell and out onto the deck.

To Bella, the clouds were like multifaceted pearl s with steel colored hues, cobalt, and lilac; some alit with Sun giving them a teasing of snow and silver while other clouds remained dark and threatening.

Bella wished she could sit up on the deck, brush in hand, and paint each thunderhead and wisp of condensation, but she couldn't. She took out her camera and aimed it in various ways, near and far, up close on one, where the cloud was almost cerulean and another hinted ripe watermelon from the kaleidoscope Sun.

Bella became so lost in her task that she barely noticed Esme standing beside her.

Esme put her hands on the railing and took a deep breath of the clean air. "The Puget Sound is one of my favorite places as you never really know what you were going to get. Sometimes there isn't a cloud in the sky and you can see for miles, others, or days like this when you see an abundance of beautiful clouds. But the best part for me is the smell of the water and air and when they mix with new, fresh rain."

"Mmm," Bella smiled as she put her camera away, taking in a deep breath of the moment Esme described.

"Smells like that you never forget. They seem to stay with you."

"Like a lyric or a melody," Bella smiled as the clouds drifted apart and back together again.

"Yes, very much like that." Esme's eyes brightened. "My son would love that correlation."

"Well, every time I smell the rain on the water of the Sound I will think about you, Esme, and your kindness."

"Oh, well, you won't be getting rid of me any time soon, dear girl." With a little laugh, Esme shook her head but when Bella's curious gaze went from the water to her she bit her lip and mentally chastised herself.

She probably said too much or not enough. It was a delicate balancing act, it seemed, and any moment she may or may not be getting a text from Alice telling her so.

But Bella noticed so much at times and not enough at others, and this moment was much the same. She was too curious of the clouds drifting south that she didn't pay Esme's comment any mind.

Most people would not willingly go into a car of vampires, full of unyielding trust, just because her father knew of them, therefore they must be safe. In all actuality, Charlie knew little of them and had only heard a bit of rumors here and their regarding the Cullen family.

He enjoyed ambivalence as much as his daughter, it seemed.

But Bella did get in their car, trusting them, ignoring the obvious off-putting nature and telltale clues humans usually possessed for their own self-preservation.

That truly touched Esme to be treated so well by a human. It made her feel human again, if that was at all possible.

"What can you tell me of your painting," Esme kept her gaze on the water as Bella searched Esme's profile of features for any type of discontent.

There wasn't any.

Bella looked back to the water letting out the anxiety she suddenly felt by the question. "I painted it because I was upset with mother. I wanted to disappear, I guess. I was angry and painted it quickly, without much thought."

"Huh I didn't see it quite the same way," Esme mused, waiting for Bella to take the bait.

"What do you see?"

With a small shrug of the shoulder, as if her opinion didn't really matter, she closed her eyes and pictured the painting in her mind.

"Art always means something different to other people. Mona Lisa's smile could hold a lascivious secret or an irritable bowel for all we know." Bella giggled, which Esme followed, "That's why people like art. They get decide for they how the piece speaks to them not necessarily what the artist wanted to portray. Visually speaking, in your painting there are a ton of grey clouds, much like today, in the background and a woman within the tree looking towards the sky.

Breaking it down, the clouds could mean turbulent anger or that rain washes everything clean,, or maybe it isn't rain, but tears, emotions, or fear. Maybe she's locked there awaiting danger bravely…

The girl stands with her face to sky, ready for the rain, expecting and needing it, yet it doesn't come.

Or maybe since she's a tree so she wants something grounding. She wants roots deep in the earth and the rain to thrive and grow. She needs it, yet she's always seemingly expecting the storm on the horizon.

Perhaps she's hiding but she's not as she is clearly there in plain view for anyone to take notice, if they so choose. I could go on and on…"

Bella was tearing up her hand covering her eyes as several people walked by.

"It's your story Bella, so you get to choose what the painting means."

Bella nodded, eyes dark and locked on the water below, the indigo abyss.

"It is my story."

Esme hummed her agreement. "But there's hope there, Bella. You did paint yourself smiling."

.

A/N: Not such a long chapter, but I hope you enjoy. Sorry it took so long to update as the baby had a raging fever for 4 days and only wanted to be held. Excuse my mistakes and thank you for reading and your kind reviews.


	12. Chapter 12

The Painter

Chapter 12

"_There is no place like home." ~ L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_

~O~

A/N: Remember how this is a romance/ fantasy fic? Remember the dream in Chapter 5? Yeah… things get odd. YAY!

The cool air the flowed through the backseat window and felt wonderful on Bella's face the moment she lowered it. She smiled with her eyes closed as the slight bit of chilly breeze swept over her face and teased her hair. She took in the clean, evergreen scented breath of air with ease and held it into her lungs counting easily before releasing it slowly. Her body swayed with the slightest movements when Carlisle drove over the wet, slippery roads easily.

She was completely, albeit oddly, at ease.

Esme looked in the car mirror with awe at Bella. The girl seemed uncaring or unknowing of the usual ominous vibration that the Cullen's- and those like them, gave off. Most people seemed to be wary of their nature, but Bella seemed to be an enigma.

"She's amazing," Esme whispered to Carlisle so low, Bella wouldn't be able to hear.

Carlisle gave his wife a fleeting glance as his lip curled into a slight smile.

"Don't get any matchmaking ideas," he warned. "Alice said-"

"I know all about what Alice said and her warnings and her thoughts. She gives them all so freely." Esme grinned.

"You love her," He smiled widely now before he turned to look back at Bella.

She was seemingly oblivious.

"Of course, she's my daughter." Esme grinned. "But just as Alice knew she needed to come to Forks to find us, she knows that we needed to find and grab up Bella."

"And I agreed. But don't push things, then. Let everything happen naturally." He urged, knowing his wife well. She liked gentle urging of the power of suggestion. But he knew his son better. Edward would rebel from any type of romantic suggestion place on him. Potential mates had been pushed on him for years and it was the whole reason he loathed unrequited advances or insistent, involuntary coupling from Rosalie, Tanya, Maggie, and even Jane.

He was going to have to seek Bella out himself without his family giving her to him on a silver platter.

But he was torn, because although their intervention would save Bella, helping fate usually wouldn't fare well, as they very well knew.

Rosalie was a prime example of that.

It took her decades to forgive Carlisle for ending her human life and changing her. She was not pleased to be created as a mate for Edward, as well.

If Karma was a bitch, her name was Rosalie.

However, not helping Bella wasn't an option either.

She was important.

So, when there was talk around town of the Chief's daughter coming to town, Alice was so confused. She couldn't see her. She couldn't read her or even see that presence in town ever happening.

Isabella Swan, for some reason, would never show up.

But then, when Alice had the slight vision of a human wandering the streets of Port Angeles alone and it was suddenly abundantly clear.

The only way Bella Swan would come to Forks was in a body bag, when her body would be found months later.

Alice knew they would need to intervene, right then, even if she didn't know why.

Whether it was it because Bella was important to the Cullen's or that she couldn't help but want to help the poor teenager, Alice didn't know. All she knew was the minute she decided to intercede with Bella's flight to Port Angeles- everything fell even more in place.

And once she adopted the help of Esme and Carlisle there was an even bigger picture forming.

But then, when Alice saw Bella smiling softly at Edward, she knew. She knew Bella was important.

Bella was Edward's.

But if Edward, the mind reader, was to find out or see any of Alice's visions of Bella- things wouldn't work out well.

Either Edward would rebel and reject her out of spite, or in some cases, attack her- consuming her blood.

That was the whole reason the parents were to stay away from him since they couldn't actively block Edward from reading their minds.

Even Alice and Jasper took a vacation to Vancouver to hide their minds from Edward. It was close enough, yet far enough to keep their secrets from him until school started the following Monday.

It seemed like it was the only way to save Bella and it had worked so far..

"I won't intrude," Esme huffed with exasperation. "But I do reserve the right to, soon. Alice sees things for me, too. I am very important to her already."

"I can only imagine the deviant plans you and Alice have planned for the girl." He chuckled but stopped instantly when he saw his wife's scathing glare.

"It's so weird," Bella suddenly spoke with awe yet confusion. "Watching you two is like watching one of those soundless movies; all expression and looks, but no sound."

Esme's and Carlisle's jaws clenched shut at the same time and it was like they both became statues. The only movements were the minute turns on the steering wheel and Carlisle's foot rotating between the gas and the brake.

And they stayed that was for several moments before Bella sat back in her seat and bit at her lip. "I- I didn't mean to be rude." She finally bit out, tears lining her eyes, but didn't fall.

Her words seemed to break them from their stoic postures and both relaxed, albeit minutely.

"You weren't rude, Bella," Carlisle started, looking to Esme to take over. It wasn't often people were able to catch them, if ever.

"You just caught us off guard," Esme finished and waved her hand dismissively.

"So, what was that… all… about?"

Esme gave a long sigh as she face forward, clicked on her phone and saw no message or text from their clairvoyant daughter, Alice. It was then Esme realized they were on her own.

There wasn't any rest stop as a diversion and were far from their destination to avoid the question.

Typing out a quick message, Esme turned off the phone and waited.

Carlisle grasped the steering wheel tightly as Esme's phone finally pinged.

**You got yourselves into it- get yourselves out! Ha! -Alice**

"Alice," Esme hissed before shuddering. Then, with a smile on her face, she pulled herself together. "I'm sorry, Bella. My daughter's texts distracted me. I was merely talking to Carlisle quietly so not to disturb you."

"It is fine, I was just wondering," Bella said simply but confused, looking back out the window.

That was then she saw it.

A little blur racing through the trees.

Familiar yet not…

Bright sparks of light, prismatic arrays in a human shape.

The dream… painting furiously before the image faded away.

The hand, marbled with an array of purples and blues portraying the hard, cold, frigidness.

Wicked lines curved into the grasp as it reached through a mess of verdant leaves and thick, ancient, evergreen trees. It was as if she was running and the disembodied arm was trying to grasp her.

Pleading.

Tears falling.

But there was more.

The hand reaching out to her had suddenly, violently flickered with a diamond spark on the tip of the closest finger, jolting her awake.

Sobbing… emotions running rampant… anxiety tainted her ability to paint.

Bella gasped, looking toward the man and woman in front of her, landing on Carlisle's hands.

She saw the pale pastel colors of his hands low on the steering wheel, away from the new brightness of the sun.

Bella looked toward Esme when she suddenly gulped and gritted her teeth as the vivid sunbeams silhouetted the sapphire sky and grey sky. She shook her head, dismissing her thoughts before she turned back towards the blur racing through the trees. It was as if it easily keeping up with the car.

Esme was illuminated briefly when the sub touched her skin lightly casting rainbow colored specks throughout the car before she covered up with her scarf.

Esme looked behind her, but Bella's head was tilted in confusion and her eyes were transfixed on something in the trees. When Esme followed Bella's gaze she was suddenly shocked.

"He knows," she whispered. Her words caused Carlisle's eyes to dart toward the evergreens, too, with a sharp intake of breath of his own.

But the blur moved deeper into the trees before disappearing completely.

.

A/N: I thought I would end with a cliffie! YAY! Remember… B doesn't know what the blur was let alone who. She doesn't know anything of E… other than her dreams, lol.

I am pulling Sirens to get it edited properly and ready to get published. If you want to read it, you should do it soon. (But ignore all the mistakes, lol) If not, just know that if it does get published I will post a chapter to alert you when to get it for free.

Thank you for your kind reviews! I really appreciate each one.


	13. Chapter 13

The Painter

Chapter 13

"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become." ~ C.G. Jung

~O~

"What was that?!" Bella asked with excitement.

"Bella, are you feeling alright?"

Bella's eyes went from the window to Esme who was turning in her seat with a concerned look on her face. Cold lines of blues and purples lined her delicate face.

"What was in the trees?" Bella pointed absently toward her window, suddenly feeling obtuse with their nonchalance.

Esme's features furrowed as she eyed Bella warily before she turned and faced forward again. "Oh, huh… I don't know… I didn't see it."

Bella looked between the two people in front of her, but they were steadfastly watching the road before them like stone statues. She could see that Carlisle's mouth was pursed as he scowled at the road before him.

Billowy clouds passed over them casting pallid pale pastels and ash hues laced with tension.

She knew the sight and sounds of avoidance well, and that was exactly what the Cullen's were doing.

Biting her lip she glared out the window, watching the evergreens pass uneventfully. "Who is Edward, again?"

Esme's eyes lit up, happy that the previous question about what was moving in the trees had subsided without issue.

"Edward is our son," She beamed.

"Ah, that's right. I remember you saying that from before. I guess that makes sense."

"Hmm," Esme twisted in her chair and smiled at Bella in a motherly way. Her face was waxen with dark lips bordering oddly white, strident teeth.

Bella mused quietly as she tried to put everything together, but there was something obviously missing. It was then she remembered the whispered words from Esme, gaining Bella's attention. "You said he knows… who is _he _and what does_ he_ know?"

Esme's face fell instantly, eyes moving over Bella's looking for any sign of manipulation.

"What?" Esme sucked in a sharp breath, eyes darting toward her husband for a moment before landing back on a very confused Bella.

She knew that look well.

It was a little bit of fear, irritation, and exasperation.

"_Just get on the escalator, Bella." Renee huffed, her face full of hard lines as her eyes watched all of the hurried, guarded travelers trying to move around them to get on the escalator. _

_Bella's eyes were wide, tears brimming, as she shook her head in quick little shakes. _

"_Get in gear or get out of the way." A man snidely said as he passed. His dark eyes landed on Bella and then Renee in warning. _

"_Can't we just take the elevators?" Bella asked meekly, eyeing the gruff man as she hid behind her hair._

_Renee's eyes narrowed with anger in the man, sucking her teeth as to not bite out a retort. He was already moving away when she turned back to her daughter with fear, irritation, and exasperation._

_It would be so easy to just get on the escalator herself, but it wasn't worth the fight and embarrassment making Bella get on the escalator would create. After all, Renee was exhausted and wanted to go home after the long day of traveling. Renee turned and watched as her mother boarded the escalator, lips lined tight, with her aloof boyfriend whom did not want to be bothered by yet another bout of anxiety from the thirteen year old. _

_Relenting with resignation, Renee nodded, "Of course. Yes… Let's go." _

_Bella's shoulders slouched with a release of tension as they headed toward the elevators; both knowing that they would have to deal with this fear, just as they did with the shower curtain._

_Riding up and down the escalator over and over and over would be in their near future, no doubt. _

"I was just curious." Bella smiled at Esme as if to take back her intrusive question.

Bella found that a small, innocuous smile often diffused rising tensions and frustration of others. People often didn't want to lash out at someone who was smiling kindly.

"No, it's fine. I guess I am just out of my head today," Esme chuckled and then sighed. "It was just a phone message. Our son knows we're on our way home, that's all."

Bella could tell Esme was lying, but didn't press or call her out on it. She just nodded and looked back out the window in silence. Eventually, she grew bored of the lack of conversation and took out her book reading quietly until she drifted to sleep.

.

"The Ferry, huh?" Gruff and a little huffy, Charlie squared his shoulders waiting for Bella to get all the way out of the Cullen's car. Esme and Carlisle were already out and talking happily when Bella groggily got out of the car on stiff legs.

"It was faster and Bella wasn't apposed," Esme flicked her hand as if it was a non-issue. Carlisle moved away from Charlie and made his way around the car to rearrange their luggage in the trunk, pulling out Bella's and then lingered outside.

"It was beautiful on the water, of course; we are both, obviously, enamored with your daughter so it was a pleasant trip." Esme's easy smile was soothing any worry he had as Charlie grabbed Bella's luggage and moved it toward the house.

Bella excused herself into the house and up into bathroom after a small, awkward hug from her father, but now she lingered in the living room listening, staring at the ruddy carpet absently, and jumped when Carlisle shut the trunk.

"She usually prefers to go the long way around… in the car."

"Yes, of course." Esme smiled easily. "But we didn't know. She was happy to go with the flow. I am just so glad we were in the right place at the right time to intercept her at the hotel and help you and Bella! It's such a small world, sometimes."

"Huh," Dark eyes focused on nothing and everything as unasked questions circled his mind. His eyes suddenly darted to the house where he saw the silhouette of Bella lingering just inside. Charlie shook his head, righting himself of his manners and invited the Cullen's inside.

"Would you like to come in?" He asked, but didn't wait for an answer as he gestured the Cullen's to follow him, which they politely complied.

"I do appreciate you bringing her home. Big favor for me since this case took over." Charlie said as he gestured for them to sit down in the small living room, looking for an unexpectedly absent Bella.

Esme looked around, too, wondering where Bella wondered off to when Carlisle broke the silence.

"Any word on the case, if you don't mind me asking?"

Charlie knew what Carlisle was referring to and gave him a small shrug as Esme's eyes darted from Carlisle to Charlie, visibly calming when she could see the confused frustration further line Charlie's face.

"Just a few leads that we're currently investigating, but nothing of substance as of yet. Still waiting on the autopsy report." Hard stare at Carlisle.

"I've been out of town so I don't know the status, off hand. It should be close by now, I would assume." Carlisle frowned suddenly wondering why he wasn't notified of any updates on the case. The small town didn't have an active coroner so several doctors did the job, Carlisle included, but he didn't know if his colleague finished the autopsy in his absence. "I could expedite it, if that may help."

Charlie gave a curt nod before he looked around for Bella, again.

"School's starting soon," Esme grinned. "I know our Alice is excited."

"Bella will most likely continuing her schooling online," Charlie sighed, eying the carpet with sudden discomfort.

Bella skipped down the stairs and everyone seemed more at ease with her presence in the room. Bella quickly moved through the room with a quiet apology for her absence before she sat next to her father.

He hugged her, whispering how happy he was that she was finally home, which Bella thought was odd. Charlie wasn't one who shared his emotions often, especially not around guests.

"Why would you do online schooling?"

Bella frowned, eyes moving from Carlisle's dark narrowed eyes to Esme's who seemed a little irritated at her husband's question.

"Carlisle," Esme chided when she saw Bella's instant discomfort. "Oh, don't fret, Bella! I can tell that's a private thing."

Esme moved to get up to leave but Bella sighed with exasperation and motioned for her to sit. Esme sat back on the couch slightly glaring at her husband.

"It's fine, really. It's not a secret."

Esme looked at Bella intently with a kind smile, giving her all of her attention.

"I have anxiety and sensory issues- that is the short of it. Previously, it's been difficult assimilating in a public school setting and it's just been easier for everyone for me to do my schooling at home in the peace and quiet." Bella's voice drifted off as she looked to her dad for support, but he was a blank slate, emotionless, or maybe he was deep in thought.

Bella looked to Esme and then to Carlisle. Carlisle gave Bella a slight smile before he distracted himself with his phone. Esme was smiling carefully, reaching over to cup Bella's warm hands with her cold ones.

"Well, thank you for sharing that with us and don't you worry that pretty little head. All will work out, you'll see."

With that Esme stood, followed by Carlisle. They excused themselves from the Swan home.

"I scared them away," Bella frowned as she closed the door. She looked at her father's sympathetic eyes as he pulled her to his flannel covered chest.

Green and red plaid fleece comforted her with warmth as the faint smell of fish, river, and coffee wafted and lingered.

"I'm sure they were just anxious to get home and back to their kids." Strong hands gave small circular caresses over her back soothing his daughter as she relaxed into his embrace. "Besides, it's rude to linger too long when you only just got here." He scoffed.

Bella smiled and held her father tightly for a moment more before pulling away.

"Oh, I've missed you," Bella cried, smiled brightly with crescent eyes that dripped with tears down her cheeks when she looked up into the same dark eyes as hers. "Dinner?"

Charlie grinned under his mustache. "I could eat if you wanted to cook something or we could go to the diner."

Bella nodded and moved into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge to see what was inside. She could only sneer as lots of grey, reeking, hazy-eyed fish stared blankly back at her. Vitamin R lined the top half shelf as old diner to go boxes littered the bottom.

"Actually, the diner sounds great."

.

A/N: There may have been confusion in the last chapter but Charlie doesn't know the truth about the Cullen's as vampires but he's aware of the rumors from the rez… I will be touching on that more later. If you read my Into the Woods fic, you know how much I dislike Jacob, so yeah... we'll see how he is in this fic. I'll be out of town next week but hope to update at least once.

Also, this is a M story, don't forget.


	14. Chapter 14

The Painter

Chapter 14

"_See the light in others and treat them as if that is all you see." ~Wayne Dyer_

~O~

A/N: Disclaimer: I am not an expert on Quileute folklore, heritage, their dances, or the like. All of the below is completely fabricated and is fictional. I am not trying to disrespect or minimalize or offend any of their true traditions and or sensibilities. I also watched lots of YouTube videos which were mostly unhelpful for research purposes. With that said, I have been to La Push and Forks and I have seen the effects of their driftwood on the fire, too. Several reviews implied longer chapters would be awesome, so this one is longer. Thank you for your kind reviews, alerts, and favorites.

~O~

The Sun finally broke through all of the rain clouds and set behind the evergreen trees, casting many long, gold silhouettes of light through Bella's window. She smiled as she looked through the view finder of her digital camera and clicked. She shifted a little and clicked, moving slightly toward the darkest of the trees and clicked the trigger again. She took numerous pictures over and over as the emerald and lime colored leaves danced in the breeze.

Bella couldn't help but notice the way her room smelled dank and dusty in only the way a habitually closed off room could. She wanted to smell the dew, the moss, and the earth. She wanted to smell the ancient, watchful trees. She wanted the calm, peaceful quiet.

Sitting on her windowsill, she carefully opened the sticky window and let the fragrance of nature filter in. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and held it as the cool, soft breeze tickled by and tried to come inside.

Then, it was as if a leaf from the tree just outside her window touched the side of her face, a caress, before it fell and took its place with all of the other autumn leaves on the earth below.

She smiled imagining the variations of burnt orange, scarlet, gold, auburn, and verdant leaves.

Opening her eyes slowly, Bella expected to see the breeze and the fluttering leaves but it was completely and oddly still outside.

Bella didn't have long to muse over it though when Charlie called her name from downstairs. Standing up from the window sill, Bella turned towards the door where her father suddenly appeared.

"Before you get lost in your art, I was thinking I'd take you to La Push for the bon fire." Charlie smiled with his eyes; his laugh lines crinkled softly at the corners, showing his kind heart rarely seen.

Bella nodded with a small smile, "Sure. I could take some pictures of the sand, beach, and the fire I suppose."

Bella suddenly noticed her father had changed his clothes and the smell of soap filled the room. Charlie nodded absentmindedly and shifted nervously from one leg to the other, uncomfortable under her scrutiny.

"Great. We'll leave in about an hour; just enough time to get unpacked and whatnot."

"Okay."

"Oh, and dress warm. You're not in Arizona anymore."

"Obviously," Bella scoffed as she rolled her eyes. She couldn't help but grin at Charlie's sudden protective side.

With a chuckle and a soft shake of his head, Charlie grabbed the doorknob and shut her door behind him.

Bella turned and looked back out her bedroom window with a soft sigh. The golden, sunbeams faded below the tree line, taking her bright mood with them and leaving her with a sense of unease. It was as if the trees had eyes within their darkness as the blue-grey hues of twilight washed the vibrant qualities of autumn out.

.

Dark plumes of smoke drifted up from the Earth and through the bordering foliage as fiery crimson, ochre, and ginger heat licked and consumed the thick chunks of firewood. Large rocks weathered by the salted sea bordered the bonfire and around that everyone sat on large pieces of driftwood and fallen logs, enjoying the beloved element.

Bella was easily mesmerized watching the hypnotic figures of flames spark and dance for her. The heat radiated and warmed the front of her as the breeze from the ocean sent chills down her spine. She could have spent the entire time just enjoying the quiet calm the fire brought her, forever.

But then there was drumming coming from the trees, howling, and then low masculine chants filled the pine and beach scented air. Feather and fur clad Quileute's soon emerged from the forest almost invisible- like spirits from the past and future. They hopped, skipped, and danced forward as they made their way to the bonfire.

Some continued to chant in alto as others started to sing in their native language. They soon circled through and around their guests causing them to turn and twist to watch before the dancers made their way into the space around the bonfire.

They chanted as one singer belted out loudly while the drumming grew more intense.

Bella took in a deep breath, ever sensitive to the loud noises, and tried to just be in the moment.

She smiled as the men fanned the smoke with their pelted and feathered wings, chanting as they danced in circles. Woman, dressing in Indian clothing sat weaving baskets as another man threw out fishing nets and then pulled them back in. Some men sat on the edges, cutting out a 12 foot canoe with an intricately decorated wooden and metal tool.

It was like a scene from days past.

The head of an Alpha wolf adorned one of the male's head suddenly appeared. The fur of the wolf over his body and legs also fell over his shoulders and back. He had the wolves paws fisted in his and the claws outstretched.

He was a wolf.

Bella could only gasp, seeing their dance, watching the way the smoke and lit ash drifted around them as if dancing with the fates themselves.

Their songs drifted easily through the ears with calm comfort before they grew louder.

More intense.

The man wearing the wolf, trotted around, prancing, and howled into the dark night dramatically. The other men were also in various pelts and represented many different animals such as deer, elk, rabbit, mountain lion, and even a bear, while others remained to represent the Quileute natives.

Bella gasped out loud when a large teenage male with a bear pelt over his head and shoulders clawed at the air as he danced around menacingly and roaring.

Music and voices sang into the heavens, continuing to add to the ambiance until all went silent.

Bella twisted to look, seeing all the men and the men pretending to be animals freeze in their place with wide watchful eyes as several Indians moved forward, ominously. Everyone could see their faces alit in white powder with red paint under their eyes. They wore period clothing from years past as they hissed and twisted silently through the trees around them. Their hands were outstretched before them as if they were claws.

There were no drums, no beautiful singing, or chanting voices. Only the random twigs breaking underfoot and their hissing. Their faces were pulled into painful scowls, eyes dancing around through all of the animals, hissing and recoiling when they came too close to the animal or Indian.

Men stood up from where they sat on the driftwood, suddenly armed with their knives and bows, dressed as warriors- which Bella failed to notice until now.

There was a pound on the drum and the freaky humans moved one beat countering the movement of the animals and the warriors. Each beat they moved defensively.

Another beat and they moved around each other in a hostile triangular dance.

The beat of the drum, quickened into a heartbeat like sound and they moved accordingly, strategically, until the Indian Chief was suddenly grabbed by one of the strange ones.

With a sharp intake of breath, a strangled scream rang out through the quiet and then the drums hammered wildly as the people moved around. Each Indian countering a sinister one was overpowered and grabbed before falling to the ground, dead.

The heart-beating drums which were frenzied and unyielding before- thrummed slowly, painfully and then deathly quiet.

The Chief fell to the ground.

Silence ensued.

Only the callous, pale-faced people remained.

Their eyes bright red and angry as they looked around the audience as if they were to find their next meals and the people shifted nervously at their attention as tears fell around the audience.

The red eyed Indian's hissed and chomped their audience and no one dared to move.

Someone with a flute started to play as the pale faced strangers fell backward towards the trees, but that's not what everyone was watching. The Chief's headdress seemed to change and he rose as the wolf.

He was a larger wolf than the one before. A burgundy and brown Alpha- male with threatening growls stood alone as the woman and children slowly, carefully moved behind him.

The drums started again with a quick, animalistic pulse as the wolf raced forward and grabbed one of the pale faces. She screamed as he bit at her, clawed arms thrashing before she fell to the ground.

Even though Bella knew it was all a show now, she knew she was seeing their history according to them.

It was horrifying.

Tears continued to fall as one after another of the paled humans fell in a heap of bodies.

But then one of the people circled behind the Wolf and stood before the woman and children. She looked at the lot as if she would soon consume them while her male counterpart grabbed the Wolf from behind. He was about to kill the Wolf again but his attention was suddenly diverted.

A piercing cry filled the beach as a small old woman stood with a sharp knife place at her abdomen.

Red clothe for blood fell to the ground as the Indians around her wept and shrieked their pain.

But the red eyed villains licked their lips, attention diverted toward the side with the woman.

The Wolf ran to them, easily grabbing them and tearing them apart as other wolves of fallen Indians rose from the ground and easily killed the last of the pale faces while others ran into the forest to get away.

The drumming, so intense faded away as the woman fell to her knees and the Chief Wolf moved to catch her. He cried out to the Heavens and stars, lying on the ground next to her weakening form.

The heart-beating drum stopped.

Silence.

The waves from the shore ebbed and flowed like countless times before as time seemed to move on.

All attention was diverted to the bonfire as the distinguishable clothing from the ancient, red-eyed rogue people wear thrown into the fire.

It instantly changed the color of the fire into a mirage of blues, greens, and sometimes purple flames.

There was a soft song whispered and chanted and as the fire grew, the chanting heightened.

Bella felt physically exhausted as she shuddered from a sudden cold breeze from shore watching aptly as the scenes before her slowly faded back into the trees.

Those adorning their sacred spirit animals moved freely again, alive and reborn, before fading into the darkness again.

As if all was right in the world.

The wolves, ever watchful, circled the crowd and then faded into the darkness of the trees, last.

Their howls ended their story.

.

People began reliving the story to their neighbors as Bella looked at Charlie with wide eyes.

"You did well!" He said and laughed when she rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe you're making this about my issues when we just watched all of that!"

Charlie shrugged. "I've seen it before. This one was very dramatic, though. It was as if the new pack members were trying to show off a little." He winked and then narrowed his eyes as he watched several teenage boys lingering around them. His look scared them off and they soon scattered.

"Well, it was amazing to watch nonetheless."

Her father could only agree with a smile before grabbing his daughter's hand and pulled her toward the food area.

"Let's get you properly introduced, shall we?"

Bella groaned and dragged her feet in the cold sand, but obliged.

.

Bella's head swam with the story of The Third Wife and the fact that her father was dating one of the recently widowed Quileute women.

Sue was nice enough, as was her son Seth, but her daughter Leah seemed hostile when she leaned in for a gracious hug.

It was as if Leah smelled her.

Shaking it off, the girl stomped off and her mother apologized with a simple excuse, "Teenagers."

The adults had a good laugh and Bella excused herself to go sit alone on the dark beach, disappearing into the darkness of night.

.

"She's marked, Jacob." Leah sneered, just within the light of the bonfire.

Leah stood with the male who played the bear and he was glaring into the crowd, eyes searching.

They couldn't see Bella from where she was sitting so she turned her head and rested it on her shoulder to watch them.

"You could be wrong." He sneered, not toward her but in general.

"What if I am right?" The imploring look she gave him made Bella a little uncomfortable. It was like the girl was trying to jump the boy in front of her but was barely holding herself back.

It reminded her of when boys or girls at her old school would make an excuse to talk to each other.

Bella rolled her eyes and faced forward as they continued to talk.

"The best I can do is patrol. If there is any evidence of your claims then we can go from there, Leah. But don't make this more than it is, okay? Not everything has to be a conspiracy, baby."

There was shuffling behind her.

"I know," she sighed, as the sounds of embracing and kissing countered the sound of the beach.

Bella got up as quietly as she could and started to walk down the beach, far away from all of the drama and affection the two teenagers were constructing.

The light from the bonfire was far behind her and the full moonlight lay before her, leading the way toward the tree line. Bella didn't want to get lost in the trees but sat just to the side of them and in front of the ocean, again.

She sighed, smelling the cool, salted air as her hair wisped around her face. She smiled and almost wished her mother was sitting next to her, complaining about the "sea spiders" as she liked to refer to crabs, and bugs. She wasn't one to sit for long and definitely not in the moonlight next to a forest.

"_Bear's Bella," _Bella could almost hear her voice. "_They sneak up on you, almost silently and the next thing you know- you're dinner!" _

_Bella gasped, "No!" Her hair in long pig tails shook along with her head. _

_But Renee nodded dramatically. "There was one boy when I was growing up there and he wandered off by himself. The only thing they every found of him was his shoes."_

"_Mommy!" _

"_That's one of the reasons you're just safer here, Bella. You wander."_

Bella sighed at her small memory. Renee liked to use fear to feed Bella's anxiety to get her to want to stay with them. But she must have forgotten how beautiful and wonderful it is in the Pacific Northwest.

There was a rustle in the trees, probably a squirrel or rabbit, but Bella watched the trees for movement.

A twig broke and her eyes moved toward the sound, but didn't see anything.

All the sudden there was a howl in the distance and the people who were laughing and chatting grew silent and watchful.

Bella stood up, still watching the trees, her eyes transfixed and watching for movement.

It was as if there was a void in the darkness, where she couldn't see moonlight.

Something lingered there.

But there wasn't any movement, any breathing that she could hear.

She took a step behind her and then another; each step one farther away from the trees she was watching as she stumbled through the sand.

"Bella?" Charlie called out and Bella turned her head to see him and instantly heard a whoosh within the trees. Her head whipped back to the spot of darkness.

All was calm and quiet there again and whatever was lingering there was long gone.

Bella continued to step away until Charlie stood before her, dangling his keys along with a new set that weren't previously there.

She quirked an eyebrow at her father, trees forgotten, as he grinned at his daughter with mirth.

"I got you a piece of junk, but it's your piece of junk."

"Well… that's nice, I guess. Should I return the favor?"

Charlie ruffled his daughter's hair as if she was five again and laughed. "I really missed you, kiddo."

Bella smiled and watched Charlie as he finally looked contented. "I missed you, too."

"Let's get you home… in your truck."

He paused by an old red truck and handed her the keys. "This is mostly a gift for me so I don't have to be your chauffeur."

"Thanks," she scoffed, "But really, thanks for… everything."

"Yep,"

They fell into a comfortable silence before he helped her open the rusted doors. He would have to oil the hinges in the morning.

"Follow you home?" She smiled, twisting the key and starting the truck. It was loud and rumbling and she couldn't help but smile. Charlie nodded and got into his cruiser, leading the way.

.


	15. Chapter 15

The Painter

Chapter 16

_"You're a ghost driving a meat coated skeleton made from stardust. What do you have to be afraid of?" ~Anonymous_

~O~

Bella stood in front of a blank canvas that was already coated with a layer of Gesso.

She twisted the brush in her hand waiting for the images to come to her.

They always do.

She closed her eyes, the images dancing before her, eyes a lit as drums beat intensely but not in a way that was troubling to the soul. Quileute Indians howling, chanting, and dancing as they acted out their history for their audience.

But it wasn't what she wanted to paint, that was the background.

Bella dipped the brush into the dark pigment and lifted it to the white; the contrast jarring as long, dark streaks lined and soon covered the canvas with onyx. The paint created a vast, infinite bit of space, an uncharted abyss, a void.

The rectangle was soon swiped and tinted with a slight hint midnight blue in the top middle before she dipped into olive and ripened avocado. She daubed and pushed the paint into verdant foliage teetering over rocks and fallen logs. The ground was tinted in a wash of gray like the sand of Rialto Beach where she sat on watching the waves, close to the trees.

Wisps of smoky greys were added, bordered by a line of pumice sea foam to emulate the sea.

She always went back to the green. Never enough shades of green.

Over and over, with a slight twist of the wrist, Bella made leaves, bushes, and fern come alive within the darkness. Limes and jades added more life with light and Bella smiled.

She loved painting green.

Green was a beautiful, lively color.

But there was a human shape existing in the darkness of her painting, not invisible yet not visible either.

Bella sighed as she took a smaller brush and dipped it into a dark, smoky grey and lifted it to her painting. She let the black and grey mix, the moonlight adding a slight silhouette.

But her memory wasn't there and she hadn't a photograph to reference.

Little wisps of smoke lined the leaves with moonlight, but she left the black void alone.

Despair filled her as tears dropped over apple cheeks and lined her skin with salt. She pushed the tears from her face and trapped them on her fingers; the moisture pooling in the crevasses of her skin. She stepped back from the painting, gauging the way it ebbed and flowed around the black figure in the middle.

"Who are you?" She whispered but there wasn't anyone to answer. When she lifted her hand to the paint, trying to get closer, she was instantly reminded of her dream.

A pale, pained hand curled and reached out for her from within the pigment.

She gasped, eyes playing tricks as dreams and reality coincided.

Fingertips touched the void, the cool paint marking her.

But she didn't want to move them for fear of losing any semblance of contact.

The whistle of the wind outside her window gained Bella's attention, her head turning toward the panes of old glass straining in their caulking. She was so enamored with her art that she failed to notice there was a storm brewing outside.

Bella dropped her hand and moved toward the window. She pulled back the rippling curtains, inadvertently marking them with paint, as she watched the trees dance for her in the wind.

Twilight had long past as dusk of the day turned into night, casting blues and blacks over the yard. Lightning lit the sky and shocked Bella, her eyes wide and heart racing as then thunder rolled loudly over her head.

It was that close.

Bella took a fleeting last look outside; skin pricked with adrenaline and static energy from the storm.

She did not see the one looking back at her within the darkness of the trees.

Moving the curtains back into place, she put her paint brushes into the paint thinner and walked out of her room.

~O~

"You ready to give public school a try?" Charlie asked as he shoved a slice of pizza into his mouth.

Bella sighed before she shrugged indifference. She got a slice of cheese pizza and put it on her plate before joining her father at the table, her chair scraping loudly over old, stained linoleum.

Thunder continued to roll as lightning lit up the room, but Charlie remained indifferent.

He got up and grabbed a flashlight from one of the drawers and put it next to him on the table before sitting back down.

"It's a smaller school, Bells. I though you could at least try it so I registered you, just in case."

Bella continued to chew the pizza, but it was quickly becoming a lump in her throat as she lifted her eyes to her father. She could see the way his eyes were lined in fear and could help but wonder if she put the worry lines there.

"Maybe," she mused, non-committal, but looking at her father's features as they changed, brightened with hope.

He had her.

"I think it would be a good change." He continued, teetering as if he could sense anxiety brewing. "You did the ferry and the bonfire. Even without all of that, you've come a long ways Bella. I just think if you try, you might make some real friends you might even have a real childhood rather than-"

"I get it, okay." Bella huffed and put her pizza down. "You don't need to sell me on Forks High, Dad. I told mom I would try and I will. I have the IEP, if I need it. But small classes would be ideal and I can try to assimilate with my peers with the tools I've learned to reduce my anxieties."

"You sound so… institutionalized." He sighed with a frown. His eyes were hard as he stared at the plate before him. Charlie couldn't help but wonder if Bella's life could have been different if she had lived with him.

It was so quiet and calm here in Forks compared to Phoenix.

Phoenix had a congestion of cars, people, and construction. It had neighbors almost on top of each other, playing in their pools and people sitting around fire pits, drinking.

Forks was so much quieter and spacious. He knew she would love that.

She did love it.

"Yeah," Bella could only say. "That's due to years of therapy."

And she had had extensive therapy: Behavioral therapists, psychologists, family therapists all worked to help Bella grow into being a child able to handle school and kids, teachers and noise. She had done the tasks albeit sometimes kicking and screaming, but did them.

Bella did have anxiety issues still, and would probably always have a level of anxiety, but nothing like what she used to have as a child and preteen.

Although it was easier to stay home and be homeschooled in Phoenix, Bella knew that it was safe to say that she was going to need to step up someday and deal with the hand dealt her and make it the best she could.

It seemed it would be soon since school started in a matter of days.

The sat in mutual silence, not at all comfortable and finished their meals.

There wasn't much else to say.

The TV was on and Charlie could hear and see it from his kitchen chair, so he soon turned his attention there. Thunder rolled moving through the forests surrounding Forks and on toward Canada.

.

Bella turned the key of the old truck that sat in her driveway and it rumbled its dismay as she palmed the steering wheel. She took deep breaths, calming herself although she wasn't as nervous as she thought she would be.

But she still hadn't moved.

"Just a phone call away," She sighed, repeating Charlie's words from breakfast.

Looking in the rear view mirror, Bella slowly reversed and point turned onto the street driving carefully through the foggy town.

She soon pulled into Forks High and saw that the fog was dissipating with the rising of the sun but leaving the air crisp and chilled.

Bella's truck was the only was the only vehicle in the lot since she was so early. Turning on her iPod, Bella cracked open her book and greedily took in each word.

She barely noticed that her classmates were trickling in slowly.

It wasn't until someone parked next to her and slammed their car door.

She gasped, looking up at the person with shock, but the girl just darted through the lot with her head down.

Bella put her book away, watching.

She was an observer, wanting to get a feel of the people she would be in school with and how they acted toward each other.

Which were going to pick on others? Who was shy? Some would be obnoxious, catty, or even give the occasional disapproving look.

But most of all, they would be who they were when they thought no one was watching.

Bella saw her classmates and couldn't help but be drawn to several expensive cars that stood out among the others.

One was a Silver Volvo, slick with dew. The guy that got out of the driver's side was long and thin and had to bend in half to get out the door. He shut the door with his head down and as he sucked in the cool air and huffed it out. Bella watched the condensation as it twisted and twirled up to the heavens wondering what the sweet breath would be like draped over her face...

That was an odd thought.

Bella shook it off with a scoff only she heard.

But the odd thing was that his head turned, as if he was listening to someone or something; his body suspended mid step. His eyes darted around the parking lot until the moved over toward Bella's truck. But they didn't stop on her. The dark eyes landed on a green van pulling forward and jackknifing through the parking lot on the slick asphalt.

The mysterious guy turned forward when the van stilled in a space and he started walking toward the entrance of the school.

Bella watched as the guy was met with others who got out of a shiny cherry colored car, a black jeep, and the bumblebee yellow two-seater car. She didn't have a good chance to take anything in from the other people, other than their clothes, since she was so enamored by the one.

.

A/N: Ending here.. Last week I was crazy busy with GISHWHES and if you know what it means, you know how much insane/ fun it is. Insane fun. Anyway, look into it and try to participate in it, if you can- you won't regret it! Shout out to Musette, who made my day with her words so I hope I could make her day with mine.. See you soon.


	16. Chapter 16

The Painter

Chapter 16

"_Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." ~ Mother Teresa_

~O~

Carlisle Cullen spent hundreds of years alone in Italy.

He watched thousands of humans filter through the cold, damp Volturi castle with a mixture of empathy and apathy depending on his vampire hunger all the while impotent to save the poor souls unknowingly sentenced to their death.

No human was really special or different, really, at that time. They were merely a means to an end of hunger- temporarily stunting the painful burn of venom radiating through their vampire bodies.

But Carlisle and Eleazer were odd in that they chose not to partake in the proffered meals. Instead, they tried to keep their humanity while trying to save as many humans- as secretly as they could- and would hunt animals outside the castle in the lush forests.

It was an act of rebellion barely tolerated and if the Volturi didn't find Eleazer and Carlisle instrumental in their cause, they would have definitely been destroyed. Instead, they allowed the two golden eyed vampires to stay.

For now.

Marcus would read the entire groups of people and vampires to see if there were any connections to vampire to human for mating purposes as Heidi, a beautiful- yet sociopathic empathy- if one could imagine such a trait, would judge the extent of their bonds to another. If there was a gift, talent, and or a bond, they went to the large wooden and iron doors on the left.

Eleazer's simple job in the Royal guard was to read the inherent gifts any human or changed vampire that they may possess, thus adding them to the Volturi guard. He could see what talent or gift they could perform if they were to be changed or in a pre-existing vampire's case- keep, abolish, or destroy at will. It would then be decided among the three arrogant kings if there would be a reason to keep those poor humans and vampires.

There, those who possessed a gift, a bond, or talent would be directed to be changed into vampires.

Carmen was one such human.

The other humans would be the next meal.

Carlisle's job was to provide a sense of peace and comfort that radiated off of the man.

He loathed his existence even more when Eleazer left the Volturi with his new bride.

So, as Carlisle sat in Italy on the side of the thrones, he couldn't fathom another moment watching yet another mated vampire couple seek the courts blessings, or their destruction after the impromptu loss of their mate.

Carlisle left the Volturi.

He wanted some kind of meaning, perhaps even a mate of his own, hoping the woman was out there somewhere.

The America's seemed like a practical place to start.

.

Carlisle docked in New York living there for a short time before he headed onto Chicago for a decade or so and then finally settling to Ohio in 1910.

Esme Platt was a sixteen year old human girl and very much a tomboy. So when the day came that she was dared to climb a tree by a boy she had a slight crush on, she happily took the dare. She wanted to both prove she could climb it as well as a boy could and to impress her crush.

She was never one to turn down a dare!

But Esme fell, breaking her leg when her legs hit the ground and those kids who placed the dare on her- soon deserted her in her time of need.

It was very much a harsh lesson to learn.

Carlisle treated the poor young girl with gentle care. Her face anguished from unshed tears with wide blue eyes. He gave her a kind smile to go along with her plaster cast.

Esme was instantly a bit smitten by the good doctor with gold eyes, the other boy long forgotten.

The enamored duo didn't know it at the time, but their attraction to each other went both ways. However, she was a teenager and he was a grown, accomplished man for all intents and purposes.

Carlisle had no choice but to let the girl go that day, with a heavy heart and against every venomous cell in his body. Instead, he concentrated on setting up a home and life there in Ohio knowing there was going to be a day his mate would be of age to court but until then- he was watching Esme Platt very closely.

.

"You're always falling," Carlisle smiled softly at the girl with caramel colored hair. He was always teasing her. "First out of a tree, then off of a cliff… however, I was hoping that maybe… someday… you would fall for me?"

Memories not his own filled his mind, his father's thoughts today were ranging from the Volturi, to Eleazer, and finally landing on his mother as a young human girl.

Edward's mind reading ability provided a constant stream of information and memories, whether he wanted to see or not.

These memories were pleasant enough and far more entertaining than what he was currently reading.

Lying on his black leather couch, Edward's mind went to his father's memories of how he met his mother. Meeting your mate as a human wasn't uncommon, as there were far more human's than vampires yet fate usually led you to the mate soon before- or in Rosalie's case- right before death.

But Edward watched the memories of when his mother fell out of the tree. His mother's young teenage face was always odd, awkward, to see, knowing that she was about the same age when he finally grew to his adulthood.

When Esme came into the hospital battered and bruised, he was enraged! Seething with hate for his human mate's betrothed.

Then when she had fell (as Carlisle liked to think- but Esme really did jump) off a steep cliff, he watched with tension of his mother's memories of skidding her way down the cliffs until she landed on her leg on the rocks next to the water below. Blood entered his mind- his father's memories of smelling her blood as she lay broken at the bottom.

The slam of the back door alerted Edward to Jaspers abrupt departure with Alice trailing right after.

He was never one to want to deal with bloody, emotional memories.

Carlisle recalled moving to Chicago, unable to bear his mate walking down the aisle to the man Esme was arranged to marry.

Esme remembered her first husband who was an angry, often drunk man. He had shunned her when she was unable to birth a live son and left her to be with another woman.

Having heard the rumors of the death of his mate's child from one of the doctors Carlisle had befriended, he rushed back to Ohio. Upon arriving he heard the embarrassing rumors and eventual betrayal of Esme's husband.

She was devastated, contemplating life and her future and the end of her marriage as the sun set that fateful day. She sat on the edge of the Cantwell Cliffs, as she'd done countless times before after her son's burial, contemplating her future.

She had been to the cliffs often- usually finding a sense of peace- but the day she fell, jumped, she liked to think she slipped upon rising to her feet than the reality that she really just wanted to die.

Carlisle followed her scent easily, and knew where she usually ventured off to. He knew she was on the steep, beautiful cliffs. He found her easily and quickly repelled the rocks, securing Esme to him, but he had not realized she was paralyzed from the waist down.

"You would be a far safer bet to fall for it would seem." She smiled, grimacing at the harsh memories of which brought her to her mate. She wouldn't change anything, really, just the acute pain.

"You might just land on your feet this time," he teased, but her eyes darkened with sadness.

"I'll never be a mother, Carlisle. It's the only thing I've ever wanted."

She had refused to go to the hospital; afraid her husband would be notified and begged the good doctor to take her to his home.

Torn between logic, duty, and her wants, Carlisle begrudgingly obliged.

Esme's husband soon filed for divorce, but when the papers went undelivered, he filed a report of her desertion and had the marriage terminated.

But life wasn't over for Esme. She healed slowly being cared for by Carlisle. He had left the hospital he worked at and devoted all of his time on her and her needs.

There was one need, however that never went away.

Esme wanted to be a mother.

But Carlisle wasn't human.

Carlisle was a vampire.

Esme didn't care, she wanted to try.

The man would do anything for his new wife and they sought out applications to local orphanages, hoping for a child desperately wanting a home.

But the months ticked by and one day, as Esme sat in her wheelchair watching the birds pick their favorite seeds out of the birdfeeder, she cried. Her lower body, although unable to walk, was still able to bore a child. She couldn't understand why her husband wouldn't consummate their marriage. Was he fearful of harming her further or was it that she repulsed him?

She couldn't find the words to ask.

Carlisle was at a crossroads.

Could he risk telling his wife he was not human and have her fearful of him, or could he keep up the pretense that he was a human.

He went to great lengths trying to keep his vampirism a secret. He warmed his hands and face on warm pots before he'd go to her to give affection. His cold mouth was easily explained as it could be cooled from a cold drink.

But intercourse with Esme was a whole other thing.

He could hurt her internally, without either of them knowing.

He could harm her with his lust, biting her or tearing her apart.

Many things to consume his thoughts.

But watching his wife sit outside and cry, in a moment of weakness he whispered, "We can try," knowing that she had no chance of baring a child from him.

He was wrong.

Esme's pregnancy took both of them as a surprise.

It was violent, and quick- only 4 months long before the child started to rip her apart from the inside out.

Luckily for Esme, she couldn't feel it, but she could see it, and soon fainted.

Carlisle had no choice but to put the babe on her breast to nurse as he raced to save his mate.

The venom sutured the wounds, healing her, but as her heart raced and lost blood he began to worry. The worry became fear and when her heart stopped he bit her over and over, trying to save her.

Esme burned for days while he cared for their baby, buying donated milk.

She woke with a vengeance, grabbing her baby and cradling him as she cried, yet no tears fell.

Carlisle spent time explaining, beseeching her to understand, but it wasn't until she was standing in the corner cradling her boy before she finally understood.

She'd been married to vampire who was too scared to tell her the truth of who he was. But yet, he risked everything- even her- trying to give her what she wanted.

Esme was never one to hold a grudge.

Edward Anthony Masen Cullen made it very easy for her to forgive.

.

A/N: Long chapter… hope you get a lot of backstory, much of it is relatively cannon, yesno? LOL… see you Wednesday. Thanks for reading and kind reviews.


	17. Chapter 17

The Painter

Chapter 17

_"You are only given a tiny spark of madness; you mustn't lose it." ~Robin Williams._

~O~

_Days earlier_:

Edward sat on a large, mossy rock, his dark eyes staring absently at the calm lake water while ignoring the breeze as it blew by swaying the trees. The birds chattered nearby, readying their nests for the upcoming night.

But it was all so mundane.

His existence was mundane.

"Hey man," a gruff voice called from behind him.

Edward turned his head and saw his brother, Emmett, walking up the path. He gave the man a quick nod of acknowledgement before Emmett moved around the rock and climbed on.

"Is it my wife that's put you out again?" Emmett snickered. His wife was a firecracker on her best days and an unrelenting ballbuster on her worst. Edward's balls were the easiest, safest target though and so she usually liked to prey on him when the mood suited her.

"What did you ever do to deserve her as your wife?" Edward sighed, a smirk playing at his lip.

"I often wonder that myself," Emmett scoffed and teased, "obviously something pretty bad or I'm a glutton for punishment."

"I'd say the latter based on how loud you both are."

Emmett grinned. "Heard that did ya?"

Edward gave a withering stare. "Which time?"

"Touché. But enough diversion, why are you out here all by yourself?"

Edward huffed out a breath and looked back at the lake. It was beautiful pearl colored with the evening light and he couldn't help but love it here. "Someday I am going to take the old cottage and make it my house. I am going to add several rooms and a porch out back… maybe a deck for fishing. It's going to be like a vacation from reality."

_Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, Esme's and Carlisle's baby son, made some- not all- of Esme's pain lessen. She liked to imagine Edward was maybe the same little soul who came into the world with the wrong father and decided to give a hand to fate in giving her the real husband and life she wanted for her and her child. _

_The thought seemed kinder than reality and so she smiled happily at the green watchful eyes that stared adoringly at her as he drank his milk from his little bottle. _

_The new family was gratefully blessed._

_But it wasn't the end of their blessings as they grew when a four year old blue eyed, cherub faced boy came into their lives and wreaked havoc as they constantly tried to peel the boy off the counters, chairs, tables, trees, and more. _

_They became a family of four with little Emmett McCarty, avid thrill seeker dare devil._

_It was a good thing his new parents had endless energy._

_He came to the Cullen's one night after Emmett's parents were in a train accident. The small family were on a train when it derailed, killing most of its occupants and leaving the little boy an orphan. _

_His kind heart didn't seem to care that his new family was a little bit odd._

_He also was happy to have a baby brother who could echo his every thought, and grew super fast as a toddler was fun. _

_He called Edward his parrot. _

_They were inseparable growing up, until Rosalie. _

_Rosalie Hale was a rare beauty in the town of Rochester, New York. _

_The Cullen's moved to Rochester when Emmett was accepted to college and Carlisle and Emmett found the girl abused and left for dead on the street. Her blood pooled in the gutters, eyes wide with fear as the two of them hovered over her._

_But Emmett, big and burly, gently comforted her with his words as he picked her up and carried her back to their house. _

_When Carlisle saw that she was bleeding internally from her abuse, he told Emmett that they needed to take her to the hospital to die. _

_Never before had Emmett been more upset._

_With soft words to the girl, he begged his father to change her, and then change him._

"Reality, huh?" Emmett mused, trying to keep up with what Edward was and wasn't saying.

"Yes."

"Reality meaning?"

Edward's eyes narrowed in the twilight, lips tightly lined as he thought about his reality. "That I am forever alone, that I am an anomaly to humans and vampires alike, that my family deems it fitting to torment me with show tunes to try to block their thoughts… Oh, let's not forget sister dearest, your wife's constant thoughts that I will never be- quote: "good enough, smart enough, or man enough for anyone."

"Yeah, I don't know what's up with her lately."

"Lately? Always. It's like she loves to hate me. She just needs to calm the fuck down and give me a fucking break. I feel like my head is going to explode."

Emmett had a choice to make. He couldn't imagine not having his wife, this life- and living it alone and consumed with everyone's endless thoughts had to be such a horrible torture.

"She's just trying to block you I think… it's just the only way she knows to get you out of her head."

Edward just bit the snide comments that he wanted to make about his brother's wife. It would land on deaf ears as it always.

"Why does everyone seem to want to block me, lately?" He sighed, looking back over the dark lake.

"I can't tell you or everything will change."

"Maybe I should just go off on my own."

"So, you are thinking about leaving?"

Edward didn't move.

Emmett watched his brother for several moments.

"Look, I get it, little brother, you want to leave the nest and that's totally normal- but wait… I can't tell you why, but just… wait."

Edward turned toward his brother and watched the big smile curling wide.

"You know something."

Emmett nodded, his smile closing into a smirk.

"How long do I have to wait?"

"After Senior year at Forks High should do."

Edward scoffed and sneered, glaring at his brother.

There was no way he wanted to endure another year at Forks High.

"So is that the plan then? Is that why they went to Seattle- one last vacation before school starts?"

Emmett turned his head- his thoughts warring between telling Edward the truth and blocking him.

Edward winced in pain.

It was bad enough there were secrets flying around and his parent's abrupt departure from the house earlier that afternoon, but their constant thoughts were hiding whatever could be in Seattle..

They claimed they needed to head to Seattle and have a weekend on their own, but he knew better. They were hiding something from him.

"You're blocking me," Edward sighed, not appreciating the flitting thoughts of pole dancers swinging and flipping on their poles. The picture of his sister in law, Rose, on the pole successfully pushed Edward out of his brother's head.

"Can't say yes or no, so… maybe." The oaf beamed. "Anyhow, I've been told to make myself scarce since I can't keep a secret for long- so Rose and I are off the Denali's and the parents will be home soon. We're supposed to be gone already but I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Edward shuddered uncontrollably just thinking of Alaska and those who that lived just inside the Arctic Circle, forty-five minutes from Fairbanks.

"Have fun,"

"Before I go," Emmett's gold eyes narrowed on the sad green eyes of his brother. "Want to go for a run?"

"Sure."

The two got up and started running toward the highway trying to race the cars, matching speed as they darted through the trees.

But Edward was lithe and much faster that his brother Emmett so when he happily darted through the trees, alluding him until something stopped him in right in his tracks.

He pivoted, ignoring his brother's calls and ran alongside the inky black car his parents drove and saw that they had a human girl sitting in the back seat staring blankly out the window.

Their eyes locked for a second, sparking the girl's attention and she instantly sat straight up, trying to look deeper into the passing trees. But Edward already moved into the darkness, still running as parallel as possible.

There was a small gasp and the words: "He knows."

.

Edward stood in the trees watching Chief Swan's daughter, where Emmett envisioned him standing. His brother had had a slight blip of information slip for a second, but that was all it took.

Maybe he did it on purpose, Edward didn't know, but he was curious enough to go check it out.

He was shocked to find a petite, teenage girl standing in a bedroom at the Chief of Police's home.

She looked so much like him that Edward deduced they were related.

She stood there moving back and forth, eyes wide as she took in the clothes she was going to wear for their first day of school.

Head cocked to the side he tried to hear her, but it was as if there wasn't any words in the mysterious girl's mind.

Colors.

His mind was assaulted with so many colors. Mixing, twisting, twirling, dotting, lines, and then it was like a sledgehammer to his mind-

His EYES staring back at him.

Painted, pained eyes, beseeching.

Dark pigmented trees as marble reached forward, from the abyss glinting from the sun, toward the small fragile, human girl.

Blackness.

As if it was a dream or a fragment of imagination.

Edward gasped, eyes narrowed as he didn't recall such an event, and turned away from the oblivious girl, running home.

He needed to get to school and get a closer look of the new girl.

.

_A/N: I've deleted Chapter 16 with Renee and Bella. I wasn't sure about posting it and it's not really moving forward, but more of an insight. It's been replaced with what was Chapter 17. We are almost paralleled with Bella and Edward and about to start Forks High. Thank you for reading and your kind reviews! _


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